


Unrestrained

by Dusklatte



Series: Undoing [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Blow Jobs, But not very detailed childbirth, But there shall also be some sexual content, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Childbirth, Established Relationship, Excessive usage of hands to show emotions, F/M, Family Issues, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Smut, I'm terrible with tags but more will be added as the fic goes on, Marriage Proposal, Massage, Meet the parent(s) but in a 'we need help fighting a war' kinda way, Morning Sickness, Near Death Situations, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Prayer, Pregnant Sex, Relationship Development, Sexual Content, Slight Canon Divergence, Unplanned Pregnancy, Vaginal Fingering, Wedding Night, Weddings, referenced sexual content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21796843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dusklatte/pseuds/Dusklatte
Summary: Sylvain and Byleth are new to their relationship, and things appear to be going smoothly. However, with the war still going on, and a capital to liberate, they happen to find many barriers falling into their paths.
Relationships: Background Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Background Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Ingrid Brandl Galatea, Background Mercedes von Matritz/Dedue Molinaro, Sylvain Jose Gautier/My Unit | Byleth
Series: Undoing [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1515503
Comments: 52
Kudos: 154





	1. Relocation

**Author's Note:**

> I've been trying to work on this for so damn long, and I've only just today been able to finishing writing this first chapter....
> 
> This is technically a sequel to some smut I wrote with Byleth and Sylvain but I'm hoping that I have wrote this in a way that means it can be interpreted as a standalone thing...?
> 
> Anyway!! I hope that you all like it!

Sylvain was stunned at Byleth’s level of stamina. She had been carrying all sorts of items and furniture without breaking a sweat, whilst he was on his second break of the day.

“Come on, Byleth... Take a break why don’t you? I don’t want to be exhausted on my own...” He muttered at one point she had strolled past him, for once not holding anything. He had also grabbed at her wrist, which quickly turned into gentle hand-holding. “I know that you just want to move our stuff quickly, but...”

“Just think though, once we’ve moved our stuff, we will have the afternoon to ourselves, and nobody interrupting us...”

“Remind me again, how did we decide that we’re now going to use this as our room?”

Byleth laughed for a moment, before sitting herself down on the seat beside him. “You very much know why.”

“... Ah, I just want to hear you say it again...”

She then laughed again, this time half-heartedly. She always got flustered at the reason why, whereas Sylvain lived for it. “Fine... We've been keeping people up at night. In particular poor Dedue. And Dimitri. That, and we successfully broke my bed, because it turns that five years of not being used followed by it being used by two people at once can really do some damage.”

They only ever slept with each other in their own rooms, meaning that their neighbours – Dedue in Byleth’s case, and the Dimitri (who finally started using his own room instead of the cathedral floor) in Sylvain’s – would hear everything when things would turn intimate. The disturbed pair had gotten together and tried to come up with a way to get the couple to quieten down, or to soundproof their rooms. At the very least get a lock for Sylvain’s room, as that had now been broken for many months, resulting in many unfortunate walk-ins.

Seteth had also overheard the conversation about the current situation, and mused that he had been considering asking whether Byleth would want to reside in the captain’s quarters on the second floor of the monastery considering that it was in a much better state than her own room, and it had been Jeralt’s room previously.

And so, the couple had been told that they could (or rather, ordered that they had to) relocate to the captain’s quarters. It also meant that they could have more space, as their dorm rooms were particularly small and suffocating for two people.

“Sylvain, I’m just going to go and get the last few books from my old room. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Byleth said, before pointing as a wooden box resting on the table. “Oh, and can you find somewhere safe for that whilst I'm out? It’s... important to me. The last things my parents ever gave to me...”

After he gave her a quick nod, she smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss before leaving. He then stood up, and approached the box which she had left him in charge of. Now, he knew that it was important to her – she had just said so, after all – but he couldn’t help but wonder what was in there.

As such, he decided to satiate his curiosity and lifted the lid of the box. He then raised an eyebrow when he saw a book. He knew that was Jeralt’s journal – _he always wondered whether the man had ever said anything about him in there –_ but... she had said that it was the last _things_ that her _parents_ gave to her. Plural.

As careful as he could, he lifted the leather-bound book, and sighed when he didn’t see anything else at first. Then a small glint caught his eye...

Then he noticed the ring. If the diary was Jeralt’s, then that meant that... this ring had belonged to her mother.

Sylvain had never once heard Byleth speak of her mother. Hell, he knew absolutely nothing about the woman who brought Byleth into the world. Could her mother be a sore topic for her, or... did she just not know?

But either way, Sylvain replaced the ring before closing the box, and putting it on top of a bookshelf just as Byleth returned with the books she had gone to collect.

“And... I think that’s the last of them...” she muttered, slotting the books into place on another bookshelf. “And finally, we can take a break. Or rather, _I_ can take a break. You've been sat down whilst I've done the heavy lifting!”

“Hey, I’ve done my fair share! I was putting everything away as you brought it up... I say we both can sit.” He then, with a mischievous smirk, sat down on the sofa in the room and propped his arm across the back, meaning that she would have to sit with his arm behind her. Fortunately, she smiled at that and settled down next to him, pulling his arm over her shoulders. “Oh... and speaking of putting things away, you said that the things in that box were from your parents... I knew Jeralt, we saw him quite a bit when you were a professor... But where is your mother?”

Sylvain hadn’t expected Byleth to tense up, nor did he expect her to sigh and press her head into his chest. He did the only thing he could, and wrapped his other arm around her as she closed her eyes.

“I... never knew her. She... died giving birth to me...”

“Oh... Damn, I never should have asked-!”

“Sylvain... No. I’m... actually glad you asked... Nobody aside from Rhea and my father knows that... But I can trust you enough to tell you... The nameless grave where my father was laid to rest is where she rests too.” She leaned back slightly, and gave him a half-hearted smile. “But I never knew her. And I wouldn’t change anything about my upbringing. I dread to think how you would have treated me if she had lived and I was raised here with both of my parents.”

He fell silent, before laughing quietly. “Pious church girl Byleth... Daughter of the captain of the Knights of Seiros... Yep, Jeralt would have impaled me within my first week as a student.” And then, a grin formed on his face. “But I have to admit, you would look awfully pretty in those white robes worn by the ladies of the- ow!”

Byleth was now laughing as she playfully pinched Sylvain's cheek. “Stop imagining hitting on hypothetical me!”

“Stop making me think of hypothetical you then!”

After a few minutes of playfully arguing, the pair were disturbed by a knock on the door. Sylvain was reluctant to let Byleth go, but she was able to free herself with the promise of all her attention being on him that evening. She went to respond to the person who had knocked yet again, whilst he lingered around the sofa, looking over it to see who was there.

Byleth was actually quite relieved when she saw an impatient Felix standing there. She had been expecting one of Hanneman, Manuela or Seteth, prepared to request that they needed to quieten their laughter, in turn proving that the room wasn’t as soundproof as first thought.

“It’s about time one of you answered the door. And I'm glad I didn’t disturb you both mid... whatever the hell you were doing the other day again.”

Sylvain decided to pipe up then. “What, being perfectly functional human adults with needs?”

A simultaneous “Shut up, Sylvain,” came from Byleth and Felix, before the visitor sighed loudly.

“His Boarness has requested that everyone assembles in the Cathedral so he can explain what life-threatening situation he is putting us in next.”

  
  


* * *

* * *

  
  


“Fhirdiad? Not... Not Enbarr?”

“Yes... We will march to Fhirdiad and reclaim the capital and the Kingdom.”

Confusion was on most faces present in the cathedral, those not puzzled by the decision deep in thought. Had the Boar Prince now changed his mind, and decided to become the king he was destined to be?

Above the quiet chatter, one voice made itself heard. “So, it only took my old man _dying_ to get you to finally see sense? Tch, it’s about time...” Felix’s face looked dark as he glared at Dimitri, before he turned around and began to walk away. In response to that, Ingrid sighed, apologised for his rude tone, before rushing after him.

Within moments, the gathering was brought to a close as Dimitri proceeded to follow the two who had left, and everyone else continued muttering in confusion before dispersing. The only person who made no efforts to leave was Sylvain.

Byleth was about to leave to see what was going on with Felix too, before she noticed that Sylvain was just standing in the spot with his hand against his face and his foot silently tapping against the marble floor. That was followed by a quiet groan and a hand raking through his hair.

“Sylvain…?”

There was a small sigh, before he turned to face her. “We’re going to be going to Fhirdiad, huh…? That’s… pretty close to Gautier territory.” It was clear that something was on his mind. “My family have been involved quite heavily in stopping the influence of the Empire in the Kingdom… Just before Dimitri announced his intention to go to Fhirdiad he asked for me to contact them to bring their forces to Fhirdiad at the same time as our forces...”

Quietly, Byleth stepped towards him, and took hold of his hands. “Is something about that bothering you?”

He laughed silently, before a slight smile crept onto his face. “No, it’s nothing… It’s just that being in battle against the Empire forces that hold the capital isn’t exactly the best ‘meet the parents’ scenario, is it?”

“Sylvain, you met my father by getting his lance pointed at you as you attempted to flirt with me when I was only just made your professor. And I was oblivious as to why he was threatening you until Ingrid apologised on your behalf.”

Moments later, Sylvain was smiling once more and had pulled Byleth into an embrace. “Oh Goddess, I hope that we both survive the coming fights… I don’t want either of us to have stated all of...” His arms tightened, enough to make Byleth have to gasp quickly at the sudden loss of air. “Started all of _this_ , just for it to fall apart so close to home...”

After a moment, Byleth felt one of his hands running through her hair, whilst her shoulder felt slightly wet. “Sylvain… How about we go back to m- _our_ room and save this conversation to the morning? It’s getting late...”

“… Yeah, you’re right…” He finally released Byleth, and quickly apologised when he saw her take a moment to catch her breath. Moments later, her hand was outstretched, and he gratefully took hold of it. “Let’s just forget everything that’s going on and spend a peaceful night together...”

However, he knew that things wouldn’t be as simple as enjoying a quiet night together. He had far too many things to think of, and one fear growing in his mind… Dimitri wanted him to personally go and ask for assistance from his family, not just to ‘contact’ them as he had told her. There was far too much risk of Empire interference if he were to just write a letter. If he were to reach Gautier territory in time to return to their main forces for the battle in Fhirdiad, he would likely have to leave before noon the next day.

He had no idea how to tell her.


	2. Questionable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth finds out what Sylvain was wanting to tell her due to his behaviour being somewhat different to usual

Ever since they returned to their new room, Byleth had noticed something off about Sylvain. It wasn’t that he was acting shady, or similar to how he had done with regard to women when he was a student, but instead… he seemed awfully affectionate.

He had pulled her next to him as they shared a pot of bergamot tea, and rested his head against hers the whole time (except for when he was drinking for obvious reasons). Once they had finished the tea, he had kept her in his arms. Even when they retired to bed, he could barely seem to want to part with her when she wanted to get changed into her nightclothes.

Now, they were lying under the bedsheets, the hazy oranges and purples of the late evening filling the room. He had an arm over her as he lay on his side, his fingers laced between the fingers of her hand furthest from him. His other hand was under her back, stroking her skin through the thin cotton of her clothes. What brought a flush to her face was the way in which he was occasionally pressing kisses to her cheek and lips as he whispered about how much he loved her.

It did feel… nice. Byleth had to admit that. But at the same time, something about the situation felt forced. As though he was scared about something and wanting to make the quiet moments feel that much more important.

Eventually, when she felt his fingers holding her hand tighten, she freed herself from his grasp and turned to lie on her side so that she was facing him. She wasn’t going to force him into saying what was evidently bothering him, but she could, at the very least, provide him with a distraction.

“It's still quite early on in the night... I can’t sleep.”

His eyes met hers, and a slight smile formed on his face. “Guess that makes two of us... But I suppose that it’s good that we can’t, as we can spend more time together...” He remained still for a moment, before a quiet laugh came from him. “Though is it bad… that I don’t want to sleep tonight?”

“Not bad, just unhealthy.” Her bluntness resulted in him chuckling even more, which was followed by a sigh.

“I really… want to make tonight last. It’s just that…” He took a deep breath as he moved closer to her, and pressed her forehead against his. “This is going to be our last night together before we go to Fhirdiad.”

Byleth squinted her face for a moment, before she slowly sat up, still looking at him. “But we’re moving on to Fhirdiad in two weeks, not tomorrow.” Sylvain copied her action, and took hold of the top of her arms. “Sylvain, what has Dimitri asked for you to do?” Her eyes narrowed, her mind now void of thoughts about how overly-affectionate he had been, and now filled with anger and concern. “Actually, no, I’ll ask him myself-”

As she went to leave the bed, her wrist was grabbed hold of, and Sylvain’s eyes were wide, as though pleading her not to go. “Please, wait. You don’t need to confront him. He asked me if I was up to this task and I said that I was,” he began, his words providing a slight reassurance to the point that her tensed up shoulders dropped slightly, but not wiping the anger off her face. “I’m going to be returning to Gautier territory to discuss reinforcements for our main army. The Empire is too deeply rooted in the Kingdom to just sent a letter, so it’s something which has to be done in person.”

There was then a slight tug, and Byleth felt herself sitting back down onto the bed as Sylvain enveloped her in his arms from behind. “You said at first that he had left you in charge of contacting your family, not that you had to return home to do so.”

“I know… I wasn’t sure how to tell you properly...” He muttered, his head moving to rest on her shoulder, his breath warm against her throat. “I didn’t want to _not_ tell you, but I just couldn’t find the words to say that I have to leave tomorrow...”

Byleth wasn’t quite sure on what to say in reaction to what he was telling her, but she knew one thing in particular… She definitely needed to talk to Dimitri.

“Sylvain… Is that why you’ve been so affectionate tonight? You’ve been worried about telling me?”

“I-I… I suppose so. Yeah… I wanted to make tonight feel important, so that if the worst was to happen in these two weeks we’re going to be apart, or even when we’re liberating Fhirdiad, we would at least have some happy memories...”

Her chest fluttered slightly at his words, the feeling intensifying as he pressed a small kiss to the skin between her shoulder and throat. She wanted to just cave in to these gentle touches, and give him the night which he wanted to remember… wanted _them_ to remember… But at the same time, she felt… upset that such a decision which led to him acting this way had been made without her.

She gently pulled herself free from Sylvain’s grasp, stood up once more, and gave him the calmest smile she could muster. “I’m going to just have a quick stroll… Hearing about your task has given me a bit of a shock, so I want some fresh air to clear my mind,” she began, before leaning down and pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. That was followed by her leaning into his ear. “I’ve got some tea stored in a box on one of the bookshelves… I would absolutely love to have a cup of it as you hold onto me like you were doing a moment ago when I get back.”

His face quickly reddened at her words, but he nodded as he stood up too. “I’d like that too… So, uh… See you in a few minutes?”

“Yeah. See you in a few.” She gave him another quick kiss, grabbed hold of her coat, and left the room quickly.

Once outside the main building of the monastery, Byleth shivered. It was surprising at how warm the captain’s quarters was in relation to outside, which made her all the more glad that they were hers and Sylvain’s now. For early summer though, this chill was quite unexpected.

As she pulled her coat around her some more, now regretting having just that and her cotton nightdress on her body, she began to walk towards the Cathedral. She was intent on finding Dimitri, and getting more details on what Sylvain had been asked to do, as she had a slight feeling that he was playing down his task so as to not worry her too much. However, as she pushed open the large doors, she could see _two_ figures. One was much taller than the other, and with the dim light, she couldn’t quite make out who they were.

After taking a few steps forward, she began to make out their voices.

“Oh Father, I was so hoping that we could go to Enbarr before Fhirdiad… I long to see the church there, and to rescue Lady Rhea...”

“Flayn… I understand your sentiment, I truly do… However, it is vital that we have the Kingdom’s support when it comes to rescuing Lady Rhea. Reclaiming Fhirdiad is the least that we, and the Church, can do in return.”

Byleth bit her lip when she realised that it was Seteth and Flayn talking, as she didn’t want to disturb either of them. She had hated it the many times she had been disturbed when talking to Jeralt since she became a Professor at the Officer’s Academy, as though they may not have been seen as close, their bond had been stronger than anyone could even imagine. Knowing that they too were father and daughter made it somewhat easier to understand them, and how they felt about one another. And those times where you got to talk to one-another were both vital and precious.

She decided there and then not to disturb them. If Dimitri had been there, there would be no way that they would be having such a conversation, especially if Flayn were addressing Seteth by his true relation to her.

As silently as she had arrived, she slipped away.

Her next stop was to be Dimitri’s room. On her way there, however, she began to find her mind straying from what she was trying to do. She started to think about many missed opportunities in which she could have spoken to Jeralt, or done something which they both enjoyed together, such as fishing or drinking. That eventually turned into her wondering as to what Sylvain’s relationship with his parents were like – if they had been able to disown somebody of their flesh and blood, before demanding the one that they ‘kept’ remove remnants of the disowned son’s bandits on his own just to see if he could be given a weapon… It was likely that he may have been close to his parents, but likely not too close.

Whilst her head was in the clouds, she hadn’t been keeping an eye on where she was going. A brisk shout of “Professor! Stop!” brought her back to reality, just before she walked into the stone walls underneath the monastery’s sauna.

After a brief glance around, she noticed that the person who had shouted to her had started approaching. She was beyond surprised when she realised that the person who had saved her from an awful bruise on her face was in fact the very person she was seeking out. She wouldn’t have guessed at first that it was him though, as he was not wearing his usual heavy cape which forced him to slouch, nor was he covered in his ragged armour. He was just… In everyday clothes. A surprising look for him in the few months she had known him as his older self.

“Are you okay, Professor? You appeared to be… distracted,” he began, before glancing upwards when he saw her eye twitch slightly. “Ah… Sylvain told you about his task.”

She nodded for a moment, before turning to directly face him. It strained her neck slightly as she looked up at him from so close, so he promptly took a step backwards. “He’s been worried about how to tell me that he was going to be leaving for two weeks. It was only when I brought up how he was acting differently that I found out.”

Dimitri was silent for a moment, and his eye closed. “I figured that would be the case… Felix snapped at me that it was a foolish decision to make without consulting the two of you together, especially when your relationship…” He seemed to find it difficult to talk about the fact that she was dating Sylvain, she noticed. “When your relationship is so new.” He finally got his words out, before a smile – something which surprised her greatly, as one of those had been non-existent since her return – crept across his face. “But I have… done some advance planning with Seteth. It would be reassuring to know that Sylvain could have support in his journey north… And it appears that the only other person with two free weeks happens to be you, Professor.”

Byleth blinked for a moment, trying to figure out whether she had heard what Dimitri said correctly. She even reversed the flow of time two, three times to make sure that her ears were not playing tricks on her.

“Are you saying that I can go with him?”

“If you wish to do so, Professor… yes. As you have been telling me for many a month, I have support here in the form of our friends. I can rely on them in both yours and Sylvain’s absence.”

Byleth could feel the corners of her lips turning upwards as her eyes began to haze over through the developing tears. “Dimitri… Thank you. That means the world to me...” She leaned forward, and gave him a brief hug, making him tense up slightly. “I should probably go to tell Sylvain the news then… Thank you again.”

Without a moment of hesitation, Byleth took off in the direction of the monastery, not wanting to leave Sylvain waiting a moment longer. She hadn’t noticed that Dimitri also had been wanting to say something else to her before she left. He decided though, that perhaps he shouldn’t ask as to why on earth she was outside in this cold wearing close to nothing.

Byleth made Sylvain yell out in surprise as she burst into the room, and quickly shut the door behind her. He thought she would have been a bit longer, as normally when she spoke about going on a stroll at night, it just ended up with her spending time at the graveyard for at least half an hour – but she had been out for less than that.

Once he had caught his breath after the shock of her sudden return, Sylvain found himself being embraced tightly as Byleth buried her head into his chest.

“I’ve got something important to tell you. About… About the task that Dimitri gave to you...” She whispered at first, before glancing upwards. “Let’s just say that tonight isn’t going to be our last night together before we head to Fhirdiad. It’s only going to be our last night together at Garreg Mach before we head there.”

There was a momentary silence for a moment, before Sylvain began to smile as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Goddess, that’s the best news I’ve heard in weeks. And I have to say… you’ve saved me some time. I decided a few minutes ago that I was going to ask Dimitri in the morning as to whether you could come with me...”


	3. Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As they travel north, in the middle of a playful conversation, Byleth and Sylvain get interrupted.

“Come on, you’re looking tired. You don’t want to go falling over just yet, there’s at least another three or four days until we get to our destination,” Sylvain stated, holding out his hand for Byleth to take. He was currently on his horse, whilst she was walking to his side, arms folded in an attempt to look serious but in reality was her way of keeping her arms warm. “Don’t make me pull you up here...”

Byleth stopped, a loud crunch of a twig snapping under her feet as she took a final step, before raising an eyebrow. “Maybe I want to walk.” That was followed by a slight smirk, letting him know that she was teasing. Without any further hesitation, she continued walking forward.

Sylvain grinned in turn, and pulled his hand back. “Well, if you say so. Be careful of that tree root...” His words managed to get her to stop again, and look down just as her foot landed just in front of said root. “How about we compromise? We take turns riding so that neither of us-”

“Shh.” A hand was held backwards, her finger raised to indicate that he needed to be quiet. Byleth’s sudden action had confused Sylvain, and at the same time made him grow concerned. Concerned enough to silently dismount, and grab hold of both of their weapons. She gave him a thankful smile as he handed the Sword of the Creator, which quickly faded when there was a familiar sound somewhere in the distance.

_The sound of an arrow being shot._

Seconds later, the arrow which they had heard shot between the two of them, and lodged itself into a tree just behind his horse.

Byleth grabbed hold of his arm to pull him closer to her so that she could whisper into his ear. “I think we’re walking into an ambush… Be on your guard. And don’t use magic – we could easily set this entire forest ablaze if we do.” Her eyes fixated in the direction that the arrow came from. “I think that whoever that was likely heard us earlier, and was testing to see if there was anyone here. If we make much more noise, we will likely be attacked.” She then let go of him, and allowed him to return to his horse once more.

All that either of them could hope was that they weren’t being lured into a trap by soldiers of the Empire.

It had been when they moved forward by some short distance, after Byleth had to cut down some branches which were in their way, that another arrow had shot past them, albeit from a different direction to earlier. It affirmed Byleth’s belief that they could potentially be walking into an ambush, and that noise was responsible for alerting the ambush perpetrators.

Quickly, Byleth made her way over to Sylvain, a frown on her face as she muttered quietly so that only he could hear. “We need to get somewhere more open. A place where we can’t be attacked from the shadows and surrounded quickly. That way we can use magic too. So I guess I will take you up on the offer to ride with you… if it’s still available?”

Sylvain did his best to fight off the grin which was threatening to spread across his face as he held out his hand to help her up onto his horse. It was surprisingly difficult, at least until more arrows were shot towards them.

Their attempt to escape the ambush came to a standstill when the arrows stopped, and instead turned into a variety of axes and lances… Meaning that rather than escaping, they were heading straight into the attack.

Narrowly, the horse avoided a javelin to the leg, which was the final straw for both Sylvain and Byleth. They weren’t going to try and avoid it now, but were instead going to fight the attackers head-on so that they could continue on their journey to Gautier territory.

  
  


* * *

* * *

  
  


“As everyone should know by now… we are no longer marching on to Enbarr. We will soon be changing direction, and attempting to liberate Fhirdiad,” Dimitri explained to the former Blue Lions who had remained behind at Garreg Mach. “In about one week, we leave. We will have reinforcements meet us there, and we shall take back our capital from the Empire.”

Everyone remained silent for a moment, before Annette piped up with the question on everyone’s minds. “Um… Where are these reinforcements coming from, exactly? We’re pressed for soldiers as things are… Where are these new ones coming from?” People nodded in agreement, in particular Felix, who was sending a scowl at Dimitri.

“Yes, your Boarness. Where are these soldiers coming from?” His voice came out like a snarl, though he hadn't intended for it to sound so harsh. He already knew about what was going on, and wanted to make sure that everyone else did too.

“If you all may have noticed, we are two people short at present,” Dimitri began, folding over his arms and closing his eye. “Both Sylvain and the Professor are going to acquire reinforcements from Margrave Gautier. They will meet us during the fight for Fhirdiad. We can only hope that they do not encounter any difficulties on their journey, or else their arrival could be delayed.” Dimitri paused, opened his eye once again to look over everyone, and then closed his eye again. “Everyone is dismissed. We begin preparations to advance from now.”

Steadily, everyone began to leave the room, until Dimitri was left on his own. Just telling everyone the plan had been a difficult task, as normally, Byleth would have been in the room to explain further, and to answer the questions… But now she wasn’t even in the monastery. He had hesitated even offering to let her go, however… He knew that he couldn’t cling onto her.

He just hoped that he would see both her and Sylvain again – there had been rumours of Empire soldiers attempting to patrol the north, after hearing of what happened to Rodrigue, so that they could try to take over Fraldarius lands. Chances were, their route was going to be dangerous…

  
  


* * *

* * *

  
  


Devastated would be a good word to describe Byleth and Sylvain’s surroundings. After they had finally encountered their attackers, they had been caught up in non-stop combat since.

Byleth’s sword had certainly started to live up to legends of being able to do things such as carve into mountains, as it had managed to almost cleanly cut through many trees with minimal effort. Due to the ‘emptier’ area that was created, it had allowed Sylvain the opportunity to start using magic in addition to his lance to fight off the enemies.

By the point that it was down to the last dozen or so of the soldiers, it was steadily turning to night, and it was more than obvious that the pair were growing tired. Yet, they persisted to the best of their ability. Sylvain had ushered his horse away somewhere away from the combat, and was now resorting to fighting on foot. He hadn’t been best pleased about it, but it did thankfully allow him to cover for Byleth somewhat easier.

“When we’re done here… I can’t wait to just… wash off all of this blood and relax...” Byleth panted during one of the moments she had managed to get close to Sylvain, who had just about managed to stop a sword from piercing through his shoulder. “You…?”

“Hah… Yeah… Definitely.”

The two continued cutting down the stragglers, and it was Byleth who cut down the last one who was actively attacking them. They were then left, stood in the middle of a man-made clearing filled with fallen trees and soldiers, breathing heavily and covered with injuries.

The first thing which happened when they realised that things seemed to have been dealt with was Byleth walking over to Sylvain, and leaning against him as she rested her head on his shoulder. “That… was tiring.”

Sylvain weakly smiled in response, and nodded. “Agreed…” He then watched as she sheathed her sword, and threw her arms around him. He held one arm around her in response, but still kept hold the Lance of Ruin, seeming as he couldn’t put it away until he recovered his horse.

After what felt like a few minutes, but was instead actually a mere few seconds, Byleth released her hold of him, closed her eyes, and stretched her arms. “I can hear something like a stream nearby… Might be a good idea to wash off before we go any further… Maybe even set up a small camp for the night.” She then smiled, and began to walk in the direction of the running water that she could hear. “Meet you there in a few minutes?”

“Yeah. I’ll get my horse and catch up… Don’t go too far just in case, though. Just in case there’s any more stragglers about...”

“Same goes to you then, I don’t think the whole ‘asking for reinforcements from your family’ thing will work out if you’re, you know...”

So, for the next few minutes, the two went their separate ways. Fortunately, Sylvain’s horse wasn’t too far away, meaning that it wouldn’t take long to find Byleth, so long as he went towards the stream which, as Byleth had said, sounded as though it was nearby.

He was quite surprised when he got to where she was though, as already she had shed herself of her armour, and was sat dipping her feet into the water. He didn’t think to question it though – she had been a travelling mercenary for most of her life after all, being out in the wilderness was probably comfortable to her.

“It's not too cold... That’s quite surprising for Faerghus. I would be tempted to try and fish or maybe swim, if it weren’t for the fact that it is growing dark, and we’ve just fought off an ambush...” Byleth stated when she became aware of his presence, turning around and giving him a weak smile. “How are you feeling? You saved me from quite a few blows when we were fighting...”

“I'm good. Though I could ask the same of you – I can see that cut on your leg, you know.” Sylvain walked over to the stream, and crouched down as he started to remove his own armour. By that point, Byleth was silently looking at the cut across her thigh, hesitation on her face.

Once he was rid of his armour, Sylvain pressed a small kiss to the top of her head. “We’ve got some medical supplies with us, so how about we get it patched up, and settle down for the night?”


	4. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Ah, home… Not the best place to be, but still home...” Sylvain sighed as he looked up at the large building before himself and Byleth. “I honestly wish that the place wasn’t so big, but… I suppose it’s a good place if you’re noble, rich, and wanting a ton of crest babies… tch.”_

“Ah, home… Not the best place to be, but still home...” Sylvain sighed as he looked up at the large building before himself and Byleth. “I honestly wish that the place wasn’t so big, but… I suppose it’s a good place if you’re noble, rich, and wanting a ton of crest babies… tch.”

Byleth could see through Sylvain’s body language that he certainly meant what he was saying, especially based upon the way his hands clenched and eye winced as he mentioned ‘crest babies’. She reached out for his hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. It sent a strange feeling through her body as he smiled back at her as his shoulders dropped – she believed that it was just an overwhelming sense of relief.

“Oh, and I must warn you… Don’t let my parents know _which_ crest you have, if they ask. All they know about you is that we are similar in age, that you were my professor in the past, and that you have a crest. If they find out that you happen to have one which was supposedly lost to history...”

“They will want the big house made use of?”

Sylvain almost choked at how blunt her response was, but did his best to nod. “E-exactly that…”

After he took another few moments getting over her remarks, and over the anxiety of being home for the first time in months, Sylvain unlocked the doors and stepped inside. Byleth followed, hoping that it would be possible to deal with the official business sooner rather than later – she was longing for a warm bath after all the travelling through the cold.

What was clear almost straight away was that the building was mostly empty – a few people who appeared to be working there were still about, but there was no sign of either one of Sylvain’s parents. A few of the staff members took a moment away from their tasks to acknowledge Sylvain’s presence, resulting in him grumbling to himself slightly, an action which didn’t go unnoticed by Byleth.

“Hey… wait here for a few moments. I just want to check something.”

Byleth remained stood against a wall near to the door as Sylvain ventured into one of the nearby rooms, as she took in the layout of the building. It was certainly big, as said earlier, but it wasn’t as big as she was expecting indoors. She was expecting it to feel open and airy, but was instead very enclosed and almost suffocating. Windows were about here and there, and there were many doors, but the walls were dark… Far from a place she wanted to be. Even Garreg Mach’s ruined cathedral looked more welcoming than here.

_How Sylvain coped growing up here amazed her._

“As I thought… My parents are away at the moment. They’re not going to be back until tomorrow evening. I can contact them to see if they can return earlier so that we can get this official business for Dimitri over with, but even then, that would mean that they arrive at about midday. So… we happen to have this place mostly to ourse-” Sylvain was cut off by Byleth grabbing hold of his arm and sighing loudly.

“Thank the goddess, I need a bath!”

He smiled at her, before freeing his arm from her grasp, before moving it to over her shoulders. “You and me both…”

  
  


* * *

* * *

  
  


At her insistence, due to the available facilities, Byleth was able to get Sylvain to have a bath before her. He was fortunately very quick, and managed to get about having her own bath not too long later.

The one thing which Byleth hated about a hot bath was when you got out of the water, and felt freezing cold almost straight away. The fact that the climate in Faerghus was particularly cold anyway made that feeling a lot worse. She appreciated the fact that Sylvain had anticipated this, and provided her with a very warm and fluffy looking robe of his own to wear afterwards.

“Thank you for this, Sylvain,” she whispered as she stepped into his room where he was waiting for her. “It makes the chill a little bit more tolerable.”

From his bed, where he was sat after he had dried himself off and managed to get himself into a clean shirt and trousers, he glanced over to her and smiled. “Yeah… It’s not the nicest of temperatures. Probably doesn’t help that we are in the northern-most reaches of Faerghus either. But come here, I know a way to keep us warmer...”

Byleth raised an eyebrow when Sylvain held his hand out for her, but upon feeling the cold air around her feet and at the back of her neck, she decided to oblige him. She gently took hold of his hand, and in return, was quite abruptly pulled onto the bed as Sylvain began to laugh.

It was hard for her not to laugh either, hearing such a happy noise coming from him as he nuzzled his head into her neck when he wrapped his arms around her. “I say, after such a long journey on behalf of somebody else, we take some time for ourselves… I propose that we cuddle under the blankets. Agreed?” His breath was warm against her, and it brought a smile to her own face.

“Agreed.”

With her response, Sylvain promptly pulled the blankets over them both, and let out a quiet sigh as he embraced her around her waist once more. She responded in turn by leaning against his chest and shoulder, and closing her eyes.

After many months of the old, borderline-broken beds in Garreg Mach, being in a regular bed with comfortable sheets were Byleth’s definition of luxury. The blankets were thick and weighted, perfect for the cold. What made it even better though… was that she was sharing her comfort with Sylvain.

“When we have warmed up a bit, would you like me to show you around?” Sylvain eventually asked, his fingers slowly running up and down the small of her back. “I mean… We’re serious about what we have between us – it’s only right that you get to know where I live,” he began, closing his eyes and sighing quietly. “Even more so knowing that you don’t really have anywhere to go other than Garreg Mach… I’d like for you to be able to call _somewhere_ home.”

She took a moment to process his words, which ended with her face feeling quite warm as she thought on how to respond to that. “I know that this sounds cliché, but I could call _anywhere_ home as long as I’m with you.” She was met with a wide smile and watering eyes as she tilted her head up to look at him, so she moved her hand to rest against his jaw and smiled back. That was followed by her leaning up and pressing a kiss against his lips. “Absolutely anywhere...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next is _finally_ going to be one of the first sexy times of this fic and obviously it's gonna be very very fluffy-


	5. This peaceful moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the dawn of a new day, and Byleth and Sylvain decide to just live in the moment. 
> 
> At least until they could eat their breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is easily more than double the length of my usual chapters... I'm used to writing relatively short chapters so I decided to push myself to write something a little longer...
> 
> Besides, most of the plot points I have for this fic is based _after_ the liberation of Fhirdiad, so... I wanna get there ASAP!!

Byleth didn’t know when she fell asleep, but all that she knew was that she did, and had been abruptly awoken by a warmth around her. She opened her eyes slightly, not really taking into account anything in her vision aside from the person to her side.

“You looked comfortable,” was whispered to her, which brought a smile to her face. “And I didn’t want to ruin that for you, but… those robes you are wearing loosened whilst you were sleeping, and I didn’t want you to get too much of a chill. So I had to hold onto you to keep you warm.” His breath was warm against her cheek as he spoke.

She laughed quietly as she rubbed her eyes slightly. “And it didn’t cross your mind to just adjust the robes?”

“Well… I’d much rather not. You suit the dishevelled look, Byleth,” he grinned, before leaning in and pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. “Anyway… Good morning.”

“Good morning to you too, Sylvain…” She took this opportunity to return his kiss, and cast a glance towards the window afterwards. “It’s barely just sunrise.”

“Yeah. We’ve got a long day ahead of us, so we may as well get up early. Though looking outside…” He paused, before humming as he took a moment to think of what to say. “Maybe it is a bit too early. I doubt we will even be able to eat breakfast this early…”

She raised an eyebrow, before smiling as she lifted her hand up and took hold of his chin. “Now, we both know for a fact that you are smarter than are making yourself out to be. I know that it was entirely your intention to wake me up now, especially knowing that we will be very busy this afternoon when we have to talk to your father.” She then pulled him down, and kissed him again. “That, and even though we have travelled together for days, we haven’t had any alone time that was truly alone… until now.”

Sylvain raised his eyebrow, which was quickly followed by quiet laughter and him closing his eyes. “You know me too well… As much as I enjoy travelling with you, the tension in knowing that we could have been ambushed again at any given moment, or even killed… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we had been caught up in a fight because we decided to take some time off…” He then sighed, and moved one of his hands to hold onto her hand that was now resting on his cheek. “This moment of peace… It’s precious.”

“Sylvain…” Byleth decided there and then to sit upward, before she took hold of his other hand. “Tell me, how do you want to spend this moment? Forget everything about our duties, our reason for being here, and the war. What are you wanting?”

Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting to be asked such a question, based on his silence afterwards, and his mouth moving silently as he tried to think of something to say.

Finally, after a few moments of thinking, he let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding, before a small whisper came from him. “I want to stay right here with you.”

She nodded in agreement, which was followed by her leaning forward and kissing him again, and his hands tightened around hers as he reciprocated in kind.

As they continued their kiss, eventually, their hands began to stray. Sylvain’s hands were focussed on completely loosening the robes around Byleth, whereas her hands were busy unbuttoning the shirt he was wearing. Both were glad of their decision to bathe before they fell asleep the night before, knowing full well that their usual attire was not the easiest to remove in heated moments such as this.

Sylvain’s hands had been the first to accomplish their task due to the state that her clothes were already in. That made him quietly laugh against her lips, as that allowed his touches to fall upon her bare skin. He longed to direct his lips lower too, but he didn’t want to distract Byleth – she seemed to be determined to unfasten his shirt. He loved that determination which she held.

After a few more seconds, Byleth let out a small sigh against his lips as she managed to remove the final button, before laughing quietly. “Your hands are warm… So is your chest. Can I just stay here with you until we need to leave for Fhirdiad?”

“I’d love to do that too, however… We don’t have long. I still intend to show you around… I still want you to think of this place as a home.”

Her hands gently pressed against his chest, running her hands across the muscle and the faint scars which covered his skin. He returned the favour with just as much vigour. “Well, we had better make this quick then…”

Sylvain smirked – if they had to get down to business, then he was certainly all for that. But obviously, it also had to be at a sensible pace, and not forced to happen or else they would end up ruining the entire moment – perhaps even everything which they had with one-another.

Byleth hummed quietly against his lips as one of his hands began to fondle her breasts, and his other one fell to rest on her hip, fingers pressing down to the point that they left red marks, but thankfully not any bruises. She reacted by moving one of her hands up to tangle into his hair, giving a slight tug whenever she enjoyed what he was doing.

Not too long after, Byleth began to make small whimpering noises when her hold of him wavered, feeling a heat pooling between her legs. She could see (and feel) that Sylvain was thankfully enjoying the moment as much as she was, as their positioning under the duvet sheets meant that they were close together.

“Byleth… I have no idea if I say this enough, but… I really do love you,” he eventually whispered, pressing kisses on her lips, before moving them across her cheek towards her ear and the top of her jawline.

Despite her face having a pale pink flush by this point, Byleth’s face grew redder at his words. “I love you too… I love you,” she whimpered, having noticed that his hand which had been resting on her hip was now on his own clothes, trying to move his trousers down. “Let me… Let me do tha-ah! Let me do that!” She playfully hit at his chest as he pressed a rough kiss against the skin of her jaw whilst she was speaking.

Sylvain laughed quietly, having noticed the reaction which he had received from what he had done. Despite that, he had moved his hand back, and allowed her to focus on moving his clothing.

Once she had done that, Sylvain groaned loudly at the feel of her hand gently stroking against his now freed cock. He decided to respond in turn, and used his hand to stroke against her dampened arousal.

“Sylvain… Now?”

“Only if you’re ready.”

“I am.”

“Then yeah.” He moved his lips away from her jaw, and pressed another soft kiss to her lips. As he did this, she allowed him to pull her legs apart as he settled between them. “We, uh… Haven’t done as much as we usually do this time… Tell me if you ever want to stop.”

“The same goes for you.”

Sylvain nodded, which was followed by him resuming the kiss as he slowly pressed himself into her. She quietly moaned against his lips, which was followed by her wrapping her legs around him to urge him to continue.

As they picked up the pace, a chill began to surround the pair – their hands were too focussed on holding onto the other that they couldn’t care to pull the blankets which were falling off them back up. Fortunately, their bodies were heated enough to more than compensate for the lost warmth.

One thing which Sylvain noticed at this point was that even with the beads of sweat forming on her face, and the noises coming from her lips against his own, she genuinely did look like a goddess. The early morning sunlight coming from the window was reflecting off the pale green strands of her hair fanned out around her head. That and… he could see the genuine love which she held for him in her eyes. She wasn’t there for his money, or his crest… She was there for him, and him alone.

“Syl… Sylvain… I’m close…” Byleth eventually whispered to him just as his own movements became erratic. She could tell that he was too, so she moved her hands to cup his face, and press a further kiss to his lips as she climaxed, followed moments later by him reaching his own.

The pair remained mostly still and silent after that, aside from them both attempting to catch their breaths. That ended with Sylvain pulling out of her, wrapping his arms around her waist, before moving them both so that they were lying on their sides.

Just as Sylvain went to speak to her though, mostly to thank her for staying by his side, the peaceful moment was disturbed by a knock on the door. He grumbled for a moment, which made Byleth laugh, before letting go of her and sitting up.

“Who is it?”

“Apologies for disturbing you, master Gautier… But the Margrave has travelled through the night in response to your request to speak to him. He shall be arriving within the hour, and wishes to talk with you and your companion as soon as he returns.”

Byleth’s eyes widened as Sylvain groaned, and buried his head into his hands. He then turned to face her, and gave her a reassuring smile. “So much for our plans for the morning…”

She sat up, aware that they were both still in quite the state after having sex, but decided to push that to the back of her mind as she moved her hand to his cheek. “Remember, we still have this afternoon, possibly even tomorrow before we have to advance on Fhirdiad to meet with the others. It’s just a change in schedule, that’s all,” she began, pressing a kiss to his nose before smiling. “Let’s get changed, eat breakfast, and recap what Dimitri has asked for before we speak to your father.”

* * *

* * *

Sylvain frowned as he saw Byleth wearing her usual outfit as they sat down together for breakfast, now fully cleaned, but clearly unsuitable for the temperatures. He noticed that of the food and drinks available, she went straight to the hot drink of tea available. She held the cup close to her, using both of her hands.

After a few minutes of her barely touching her food despite how much she enjoyed eating, and only drinking the hot tea, he excused himself for a moment. He couldn’t bear to see her so cold, so he went to find one of his cloaks to offer her some warmth. When he had returned with it, he found himself blushing as she gave him an appreciative smile as she pulled it over her shoulders and ran her cheek across the fur lining.

“Thank you… That makes things much more… tolerable. It is so _cold_ here… If I had known about the temperature, I would have brought some more suitable clothes…”

“It had slipped my mind to tell you, honestly… I’m used to the temperatures. I grew up here. You were on the road a lot as you grew up, so you probably didn’t get the chance to become accustomed…”

“At least I know for the future,” she smiled, before finally, reaching out for some of the food. He grinned back at her as he settled down beside her, then helped himself to his own food.

After they had finished though, the door to the room opened – and Byleth noticed that Sylvain tensed up for a moment. She turned to face the door, and realised as to why that was the case. A man was stood there. A man who happened to look similar to Sylvain, albeit older, and with a tired look in his eyes.

“Good morning, Father. I… wasn’t expecting you to finish up your business so soon.”

“When I heard that you were wishing to talk to me on behalf of His Highness, I had to come to see what is being requested, son. Though I was not aware that you would be bringing along… company.” Byleth could understand as to why Sylvain had frozen for a moment now – the gaze of the Margrave was just as cold as the temperatures.

Sylvain took a quick sip of his tea, before sighing. “Do you mind if we finish eating before we have this discussion?”

“Fine then. I shall be in my study.”

The Margrave was quick to leave the room, and once the door was closed, Sylvain promptly groaned. “Don’t worry if he’s coming across as blunt or stuck up – he’s often a lot more tolerable than he sounded there. But… that’s war for you.”

* * *

* * *

Byleth felt almost suffocated when they ended up inside the Margrave’s study. She believed that the complete lack of windows was the main reason for that, though she was certain that there were other reasons that she couldn’t quite get her finger on. Perhaps it was the questioning stare which both she and Sylvain were receiving.

“So, I believe that before we get to discussions, I should know who this woman you have brought along is. I certainly have not seen the likes of her before now,” the Margrave began, folding over his arms from the opposite side of the table in the centre of the room which the three were sat at.

Sylvain tapped his foot for a moment, thinking of what to say. He hadn’t been expecting Byleth to respond instead, however, especially considering that the request to know who she was happened to be directed at him.

“My name is Byleth. Byleth Eisner - one of the generals of His Highness’ army alongside Sylvain.”

The Margrave seemed puzzled for a moment, before a very slight smile formed on his face – the first hint of emotion either of them had seen from him that day. “Ah. So you are the ‘Professor’ which he would not be quiet about… Though your name seems familiar too. The surname…”

At this point, Sylvain wanted to step in to keep the conversation on track for what they had come here for, but stopped when he felt her gently take hold of his hand and give it a reassuring squeeze.

“My father was renowned across Fódlan – perhaps you heard his name at some point. Jeralt Eisner.”

“Ah, yes… The Blade Breaker. I heard of his deeds – met him on occasion. How does he fare these days, with the war?”

Now Sylvain _had_ to get involved, as he could see Byleth’s shoulders drop and her grasp of his hand loosen. “Father… He was murdered over five years ago. It is a difficult subject for Byleth, so can we return to the topic at hand?” He gently ran his thumb over her knuckles as he spoke, which seemed to put her at ease.

“My apologies then. What is it that you came to speak to me about on behalf of His Highness?”

Byleth, now glad that the conversation wasn’t about her or her father, decided that it was his turn once more. “Before we get to the request, we should explain the situation… Almost one month ago was a large-scale battle at Gronder Field. Armies from both the Kingdom, Alliance, and Empire clashed, resulting in heavy losses. There was only one major fatality in the ranks of the Kingdom – Lord Rodri-“

“I had hoped that the rumours I had heard were not true, but if you are here saying as such…”

“Yes, Margrave… Lord Rodrigue sadly passed on in the aftermath of the battle. However, his parting words managed to put a halt on His Highness’ reckless and suicidal plans to charge on the Empire. The Kingdom army now has a new priority – reuniting the lands of the Kingdom to put on a united front against the Empire. In less than one week, we shall be advancing on Fhirdiad to reclaim the capital.”

With a small sigh, Sylvain straightened up as he tapped her hand to tell her to let him continue. “Put simply, Father… His Highness was wanting to know as to whether you have any spare men available, for assistance in retaking the capital. It is understandable if you cannot, but-“

“Do you have confidence in His Highness’ plans to reclaim Fhirdiad, Sylvain?”

For a moment, both Sylvain and Byleth were puzzled by the question, and exchanged confused glances. However, they silently came to the agreed consensus that they had full confidence in Dimitri.

“Yes, Father. I do. _We_ do.”

“If you hold confidence in his plans, then I shall hold confidence in you. I can spare no more than a hundred men for the time being. We are no kingdom without a King, and it is about time that the people know that their royalty have not abandoned them. Take back Fhirdiad, and let His Highness know that myself and the Eastern Lords are behind him.”

Byleth smiled with relief, whereas Sylvain let out a small sigh as he tightened his grasp of her hand. They had successfully done as they had been asked to do. That meant that now… they could forget about the war. At least for that afternoon.

“Thank you, Margrave… Your support is appreciated. I am certain that Dimitri will extend that appreciation once Fhirdiad is liberated,” Byleth stated, before both she and Sylvain stood up to leave. Just as they went to leave, however, the Margrave stopped them both.

“Son. May I speak to you alone for a moment? Lady Eisner may leave, I just wish to discuss some house-related matters quickly.”

Byleth finally released his hand at that point, and gave Sylvain a reassuring smile. “I’ll meet you outside – I intend to take you up on your offer of a tour around once you have finished up here.”

“Sure. I’ll see you shortly…” Sylvain felt reluctant to let her leave, but feigned a smile in response as she made her way out of the doors. Once he had heard her footsteps fade away into silence, he sat down once more and sighed. “What are you wanting to talk about then, Father?”

The Margrave raised an eyebrow, before pointing at the doorway. “That woman. You seem to be rather attached to her – rather unusual for you,” he began, raising his hand, and taking hold of one of his fingers. “For one, you held her hand for the entirety of our discussions. Two, I actually received an introduction to her. Three, you didn’t attempt to hide her from me. You have never done such a thing with your female visitors in the past.”

Sylvain grimaced at his father’s last sentence. “Byleth isn’t just… I only acted that way towards women in the past because they damn well know that they can try to use me for my crest. Byleth isn’t like that. She sees past the matter of crests… She’s one of the few women who can see me as _me._ ”

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“What makes me so- You’re actually asking me that, huh?” Sylvain sighed loudly, and raked a hand through his hair. “I’m certain, because she stuck by me even as I despised every fibre of her being for being oblivious to her own crest and not being used for it. She had grown up away from the influence of crests, and as such, she would treat people as themselves, not as the person their crest or lack of one dictated them to be. She means the world to me. Not my crest, or even her crest… Just her.” At this point, Sylvain stood up, and took a deep breath. “And with that off my chest… I promised her that I would show her around. Have a good day, Father.”


	6. Things spoken that should never have been said

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“If things are serious between you and Miss Eisner, I expect crest-bearing heirs to House Gautier as soon as possible when this war is over. They can possess either one of your crests, but ideally Gautier's. Those without crests can be removed from the picture, like that brother of yours. That is your one duty to our house until you take on title of Margrave.”_

Sylvain was angry. As the day went on, he had become more and more aware of his father trying to get information out of him in the moments where he wasn’t with Byleth. It had started with small questions, such as whether things between him and Byleth were serious. Then it turned into him trying to find out more about Byleth's background – namely what crest she had. There was one thing that was said which had pushed him over the edge, however.

“ _If things are serious between you and Miss Eisner, I expect crest-bearing heirs to House Gautier as soon as possible when this war is over. They can possess either one of your crests, but ideally Gautier's. Those without crests can be removed from the picture, like that brother of yours. That is your one duty to our house until you take on title of Margrave_.”

He had felt so many different emotions at that statement, including anger, frustration, disbelief, and horror. It was enough for him to simply walk away from his father, and find Byleth and the soldiers that were being entrusted to them to say that they would be leaving that night. He didn’t feel up to telling his father that every word of what he said disgusted him, and that he wouldn’t just _use_ Byleth as some sort of _thing_ for making children with crests. Byleth was worth much more than that, and he would never treat her in such a despicable manner.

It reminded him too that as much as he disliked having Miklan as a brother, it was all down to that outdated, cruel way of treating people born without crests in the nobility of Fódlan. His brother had _died_ because of it.

And... if he were ever to have children, crest or no crest, he would love them in a way that his father never did for him and Miklan. He would love them as Jeralt loved Byleth – doing anything possible to keep them safe and to be there for them whenever they needed.

“Sylvain... What’s the matter? Something seems to be bothering you, you haven’t spoken since you said that we needed to make a move towards Fhirdiad,” Byleth whispered as they were both sat on his horse as the sun set, having just began the next stretch of their journey to liberate the kingdom capital from the Empire. “Has something happened...?”

Her words pulled him out of his darkening thoughts, which was followed by him shakily sighing. “I'm... I think I'm fine, Byleth. Just a bit on edge, that’s all... There’s a lot coming up, and... I hope we make it out alive.”

Byleth made a concerned noise as she frowned. “I can tell that there’s something more on your mind. You've been getting more and more out of sorts each time your father spoke to you today. Has he said something to you?” She pulled on the reins of the horse to make it stop, before tilting her head back slightly to look at him. He did his best to avoid eye contact as he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Sylvain... Talk to me. Please...”

For a moment, he felt hesitant. He didn’t want Byleth to know about _anything_ that his father said, but knew that he inevitably would have to. But... Fhirdiad was currently a more pressing matter. He would tell her his father’s true words when the city was reclaimed. “He seemed to think that I may have been using you. That you were just ‘another girl’... He doesn’t seem to think that I've changed since I began to develop feelings towards you,” he muttered, now moving his hands onto hers, partly to hold her hands, partly to tell the horse to keep moving. “Do you know how many women I have been with or slept with over the past few years, since Edelgard declared war? One. Just one. And that is you. But he seems to think I'm still caught up in my old ways...”

Byleth’s eyes looked sad as she turned towards him, before giving him a gentle smile. “Don't let him get to you. I know that you’ve changed, and that should be all that matters... This is our relationship, not his.”

Those few words were enough to bring a smile back to his face. She was right. Absolutely right.

In an attempt to then change the topic, Byleth started gazing up at the darkening skies. “Have you been to Fhirdiad before? I may have been once or twice when travelling, but never long enough to remember what it was like there...”

His smile turned into a grin. “Oh yeah, I've been before. I have to say though, we're lucky to know Dimitri. The beds in the palace there are _heavenly._ Maybe I could, you know... _show you_ when we win the city back?”

“I’ll take you up on that offer… So long as we make it out of this coming battle alive.”

* * *

* * *

Byleth and Sylvain found themselves stood outside the walls of Fhirdiad, their small army from Sylvain’s father behind them. They could hear the sounds of battle beyond, a strong indication that the rest of the Kingdom and Church army were facing off against Cornelia, the woman who was holding the city as a last stand for the Empire in Faerghus.

They were waiting for the right moment to enter the battle, Byleth ready with the Sword of the Creator and Sylvain with the Lance of Ruin. They had a specific signal to wait for, which was due at any moment.

To the east of the city, where they were situated, there was a locked gate which could only be opened from within the city. Dimitri's plans for the attack were that his portion of the army would aim to reclaim half of the city from the empire, before they would open the gate. That was when they would enter the battle, and help to push their opponents back towards the palace.

As they waited, a loud shout came from in the distance. “Ingrid! Advance on the eastern gates!”

And that was their cue. Within minutes, they were in the city, ready to help in the fight.

“Professor! Sylvain!” Ingrid was in the skies above the pair as their additional forces joined with that of the rest of the army, and had shouted down to them in order to fill them in on what was happening. “Be careful! There are these huge… things! I’m not too sure what they are, but they’re attacking anyone and anything moving, even civilians! His Highness says to avoid them, and close in on Cornelia!”

Sylvain gave her an indication that they both heard her, before turning to Byleth. “Want a ride to catch up to the others? Going by horse will be quicker than by foot, especially if we need to avoid whatever Ingrid was talking about,” he offered, glancing around quickly to make sure that there were no enemies nearby.

Byleth paused for a moment, then nodded. “Sure. Dimitri and the others will probably need all the help that they can get with handling Cornelia, based on what I’ve heard about her.”

He held her hand out to her, and helped her up onto his horse. The amount of time they had both spent on it over recent days, he was almost debating offering to help her to find one of her own. But that meant that he wouldn’t be able to hold onto her as they rode, so… that thought was quickly cast aside.

They quickly decided that, to avoid what Ingrid had warned them about – they could see them towering over the buildings, throwing their arm-like appendages about, much to their horror – that they would navigate the city through a series of backstreets and alleys by the outskirts. The main bulk of the army, including the reinforcements which they brought along, were clearing the streets of civilians who were being targeted by the remaining Empire soldiers which hadn’t been dealt with by the former Blue Lion students.

It was as they did this that Sylvain tried to focus on what they needed to do, but instead found his thoughts returning to what his father said.

_“I expect crest-bearing heirs to House Gautier as soon as possible when this war is over.”_

He knew that he needed to concentrate on the task at hand, but-

_“That is your one duty to our house-“_

“Sylvain, we need to stop!” Byleth quickly gasped, before he brought the horse to a halt. Within seconds, a large shadow was looming over them both. A loud noise from behind them then made them turn around, and realise that they were surrounded by the very things that they were trying to avoid. Had Byleth not pulled him out of his thoughts, they would have died.

“Crap… Are we going to have to fight these…?”

“I… I don’t think we have a choice, we’re surrounded, so- Look out!” Byleth shouted out when the fist of one of the massive machines came down, intending to crush them both. They narrowly avoided being flattened, which is when Byleth jumped off the horse and gave Sylvain a fearful look.

Byleth then pulled out her sword, and moved as fast as she could to extend its reach out as far as possible to restrict the arm of the second thing which was trying to do what the first did. Sylvain could see the strain in her face as she did her best to not let it start throwing her around, so he did his best to help out by sending a large magic attack to where the Sword of the Creator was cutting into the metal.

Eventually, she had to withdraw her sword, as the original arm had returned for another attack, and she had to focus her attention on stopping that as the attacking things slowly tried to close in on them.

They did their best to limit how quickly they were being targeted by repeating what they did at first, until Sylvain began to feel exhaustion kicking in. There was only so much magic he could do before he passed out, so he had no choice but to rely upon the Lance of Ruin as they fought them off. Frustratingly, it didn’t have the same sort of reach as the Sword of the Creator, but it was definitely good for thrusting into the variety of weak points that Byleth was establishing.

The situation took a turn for the worst when suddenly, the Sword of the Creator was forced out of Byleth’s hands due to her wavering strength. It made her fall backwards onto the ground, and she barely had the energy to get back up. Out of worry, Sylvain jumped off his horse and ran over to her, making sure to keep an eye on their assailants.

“Byleth! Are you okay?!”

She winced slightly as she tried to stand up, but was too drained to do so. “Y… Yeah… Tired and bruised… but I’m okay…” She muttered, followed by her eyes widening as another of the arms were raised in the air above them.

Sylvain’s lance fell to the ground, before he crouched down to grab hold of Byleth. They were in too confined a space to run, nor did they have the capacity to hold off another attack – his lance would have simply just slowed the attack by a few seconds, and he was at his limit with magic usage.

They both feared for their lives.

Byleth did her best to return Sylvain’s tight embrace, having to close her eyes as she did so as she could see the arm coming down above them.

They were going to die.

Both of them were expecting to experience intense pain as they were crushed, but hoped that it would kill them quickly. They didn’t want to suffer, nor did they want their allies to worry that they had done.

But the pain never came. Instead, a loud mechanical noise echoed around the streets of Fhirdiad, one which led to them both tensing up and holding their breaths. After nothing happened for a few moments, Byleth reopened her eyes, her arms trembling and breath frantic as she tried to figure out what had happened.

No more than a metre above them both, the arm had stopped. The things which were attacking them had completely stopped.

“S- Sylvain… I… I think the army won…” she eventually whispered, moving her arms from around him to the sides of his face. “We… We’re alive…”

They looked at each other for a moment, before the adrenaline of surviving what would have been an inevitable death kicked in, and kissed hastily.

“I’m so glad… I’m so glad…” Sylvain muttered, his entire body shaking through shock. “I- I love you-“

Byleth smiled at him, and gave him another kiss, deeper than the one they had shared moments previously.

The moment was disturbed by a sound of disgust from a nearby roof. “Ugh, show some restraint, you two! Why is it that the last time I saw you both, you were kissing, and now that you’re back, you’re kissing again?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Felix, lmao-


	7. A gentle touch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a tough battle, Byleth's muscles ache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, I am awake at 5am posting this. I don't care though, it's Sylvain being a gentleman and treating Byleth like a queen!!

Fhirdiad was reclaimed, and within hours, all Blaiddyd lands had been once more restored to a kingdom from a dukedom. The people celebrated having their king return to them, having never believed that he had died, and even into the early hours of the morning, celebrations went on.

The army already had their next target, after having been sent a letter from Claude requesting help in Derdriu as the Empire were set to invade the aquatic capital at the end of the next moon. It would take only a few days to get there from Garreg Mach, where they would be returning to after the celebrations, so there was fortunately time to prepare.

It also provided Byleth and Sylvain time to wind down. Their allies had travelled to Fhirdiad for no longer than a week, and had more than sufficient supplies. They had travelled to Gautier lands then straight to Fhirdiad with barely a day to rest within two weeks, and minimal supplies.

But before they did get a chance to properly rest...

“According to Felix, you were both almost killed by a Titanus. Did Ingrid not warn you of them?” Seteth questioned, sounding exasperated. “How exactly did that happen?”

Seteth and Dimitri had asked to speak with the pair as the first night of celebrations died down, no doubt ready to resume the following morning. They had been troubled by what had been told to them by Felix, who had found them just after they had narrowly avoided death.

“We had been surrounded by them when trying to meet up with everyone. We physically had no way to avoid them,” Byleth began, her hand slowly moving over to cover a deep bruise on her other arm which she had received from the attack. “We were trying to hold them back as best as we could but the Sword of the Creator got pulled out of my hands, the Lance of Ruin was having little impact, and Sylvain had tired himself out with magic...”

“We basically had nowhere to go, and no way to stop ourselves from being crushed to death. If it weren’t for them stopping, you all would be burying us right now. _If_ there was be anything left _to_ bury.”

The group remained in a heavy silence for a moment, before Dimitri sighed and ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of a way to change the conversation. “How is the Margrave doing, Sylvain?”

Sylvain tutted, and closed his eyes. “No different to usual. Busy dealing with Sreng and making a big fuss over crests. Kept spending a lot of time accusing me of philandering whilst trying to find out what Byleth’s crest is.”

The silence returned again, this time not as heavy, but still somewhat tense. Byleth had an inkling that Sylvain was unhappy with his father, absolutely not being implied by the tightening grasp of her hand when he mentioned his father trying to find out her crest.

“Dimitri, Seteth... I hope that you both don’t mind, but we are both exhausted after our recent travelling, our near-death experience, and tonight’s party. Is there anywhere that we can stay for the night?”

* * *

* * *

It barely took five seconds after the door had been closed for Sylvain to make his way over to the bed and fall down onto it face-first.

“Just as wonderful as I remember...” he sighed into the sheets before rolling onto his back. “Byleth, you _have_ to come here and feel it... If you thought that my bed at home was more comfortable than the ones at Garreg Mach, this one is at a complete other level...”

Byleth laughed quietly as she watched him get comfy, before shrugging off her coat. “It probably also helps that it has been a week since we were in a bed,” she smiled, now hanging up her coat. “Let me get some of these clothes off and I'll join you.” She then proceeded to remove her excess clothes, leaving her in her shorts and shirt, before sitting down on the end of the bed and rolling her shoulders.

The strain she had been under to keep hold of the Sword of the Creator before it had been pulled away from her had led to a horrible muscle ache which healers couldn’t do much about, so she had to keep doing stretches so that her arms wouldn’t tense up. Sylvain happened to notice what she did with her shoulders as he lay watching her, and an idea came to his mind.

She flinched when she felt his hands suddenly rest on her shoulders. She was about to ask what he was doing, but he spoke before she had the chance to. “Would the lady like a massage?”

For a moment, she didn’t know how to respond, but eventually nodded. Sylvain grinned, before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

Gently, his fingers began to press into the tense muscles of her shoulders, inducing a small sigh from her. She had never had somebody offer to give her a massage before, but if they happened to be like the almost magical things he was doing with his hands, she was considering asking if he could do this more often.

Gradually, his hands began working their way towards the top of her back and bottom of her neck. His thumbs rubbed gentle circles into her skin, his fingers gently keeping hold of where the sides of her throat met her shoulders. As he did this, she turned her head slightly towards him. He responded with a soft yet lazy kiss to her lips.

It was after those kisses that Sylvain smiled, and he leaned in to her ear. “Want me to keep going, or is there anywhere else feeling tense?”

“Hmm…” Byleth took a moment to think, followed by her letting out a sigh of relief as his fingers managed to reach one particular spot on her shoulders which ached more than elsewhere. “Can you keep doing what you’re doing with your right hand?”

“And what about my left?”

“Whatever you want… Just as long as you- ah… Ah, that felt nice…” Byleth got distracted mid-sentence as he worked on the muscles between her shoulder blade and her spine. “How come you never told me that you knew how to do this? There’s been so many times I could have done with something like this…”

Sylvain laughed at her responses, before kissing her yet again. “It’s a hidden talent, I can’t just let _anyone_ have this… Only you,” he mumbled into her ear afterwards, before he decided that his now free hand could go elsewhere. “How does this feel, my lovely Byleth?”

He received his response in the form of a quiet moan as his free hand moved to slip under her shirt and ever so gently fondle one of her breasts. He was delicate with how he treated her, as though she were made of porcelain. It almost felt like it, with the bruises covering her body and the tension in her muscles.

Gradually, her breathing turned louder as he paid _particular_ attention to the most sensitive places where his hands were working. His thumb pressed into her back, making small circular motions. His other hand pinched and played with her nipple, teasing her to the point that she wanted to squirm.

Though Fhirdiad was freezing cold, and by extension the buildings were cold too, Byleth could feel the beads of sweat slipping down her face. Sylvain knew _exactly_ what he was doing to make her feel hot like this. It also didn’t help that he was beginning to lean closer to her, his heated breath behind her ear and on her throat making her want to melt into his touch.

“How is your shoulder feeling now?” he eventually whispered into her ear when she started making quite whimpering noises in response to the stimulation of her chest. “Would you like my hand to go elsewhere?”

“Sylvain…” She whispered his name, moving her hands to rest on his legs which at some point had moved to either side of her own. Her fingers then dug in as he gave a light tug at her breast, as a way to prompt her into giving an answer. She bit her lip as she tilted her head back to rest on his shoulder, in an attempt to hold back a loud moan. “Just… Just touch me already…”

Byleth was doing her best to remain conscious of how loud she was being, as she had no clue on as to how sound-proof the walls were.

“But I’m touching you already. _Where_ would you like me to touch?”

She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath as he paused all of his touches, waiting for her to say what he knew she wanted to say.

“Sylvain Jose Gautier, stop being a tease… Just touch me before I do it myself…”

He laughed quietly at her words, before nodding and pressing a kiss to her jaw. “A compelling argument you make there…” he mumbled into her skin, his hand now moving off her shoulder and trailing down her torso. “I love you, Byleth…”

“I love you too…”

Slowly, he reached the waist of her shorts, and made little work of getting his hand past all of the material. As his fingers felt around, a shiver went up Byleth’s spine.

Sylvain made a thoughtful noise as he resumed his kisses, this time on her throat. “Has having a massage really aroused you that much?” he mused, leaving a red mark behind on her throat. “I’ve never felt you so wet before…”

He eventually managed to get his fingers past her underwear, and gave a few languid strokes against her opening. She could no longer hold back the noises threatening to spill from her lips as he slowly eased one of his fingers in.

He loved when she moaned like that for him. It certainly did have an effect on him, but for now, he was entirely focused on her. She had done most of the work in the battle earlier, so she deserved to be treated for it.

He was slow as he started to finger her, wanting to take his precious time as he took in each and every noise she made, including the occasional cry of his name. As he did this, his other hand continued to play with her breasts under her shirt.

After a short while, he added a second finger. Byleth let out a particularly loud moan at that action, whilst her fingers _really_ dug into his legs.

Every little action she did as he pumped his fingers, curling them every once in a while to make her gasp, made him love her more. He could still remember how little emotion she showed when she first became the Blue Lions' professor. Seeing her as she was now, unravelling at the seams because of _him_ had him bursting with pride.

Gradually, he heard her breathing become more erratic, her walls clamping in on his fingers. He could tell that she was close, so he continued exactly as he was doing until she came.

As she came down from her high, he slowly pulled his hands out from under her clothes, peppering her cheek and jaw with kisses. He quickly wiped the hand he had fingered her with, then gave her a quick smile.

That was followed by her leaning back against him and yawning.

“You're tired, huh? Can’t really blame you, it’s been an... eventful day...” he whispered, running his hand through her hair. “We'll leave things at that tonight, you should rest.”

She slowly opened her eyes, and glanced at him worriedly. “What about you? Don’t you want-" She was clearly referring to the fact that she could feel him hard behind her, but he shushed her by pressing a finger to her lips.

“Get some sleep, love. I can handle it myself. I don’t want you to force yourself to stay awake for me,” he smiled, before watching as she pulled herself away from him. She quickly got comfortable under the blankets, another yawn escaping her lips.

“I'd watch... if I wasn’t so tired...” she muttered, closing her eyes again. “You’re right too, this bed is...” she trailed off mid sentence, her voice growing quieter as sleep overtook her. He smiled, and moved to press a kiss to her forehead moments later.

“’Night, Byleth...”


	8. Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the moon leading up to joining Claude's forces in protecting Derdriu, Byleth is trying her best to keep herself pulled together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long chapter, for my standards! Also, it comes with a plot point I've been wanting to add in since I started this fic.

Garreg Mach was a sight for sore eyes when Byleth and Sylvain returned alongside the rest of their allies. It had been almost three weeks since they had last been there, but it felt like only yesterday that they left.

Their plans were to rest and recuperate for one week, train for the next two, then make their way to Derdriu to protect it from the Empire. It was a simple enough plan.

Upon returning, the first thing that Byleth did was go to her parents' grave. Sylvain tagged along with her permission, but remained at a distance so that she could have some privacy as she spoke at the grave.

Even if he couldn’t hear her, he could see the series of emotions which she was going through on her face. A sad smile as she sat down, followed by mournful tears. He knew she still felt the loss of Jeralt heavily – it had been over five years since he died, but to her, it hadn’t even been one yet. There was then a longing stare into the sky, a very faint smile returning to her face. That was likely her talking about her hopes and wishes for the future. She lowered her head, her cheeks now flushed. His lip-reading ability was very limited, but he knew that she was saying something about him to her parents. A few moments later, she held her hands against her chest as she took a deep breath, and rose to her feet once more. That was her goodbyes.

Byleth made her way back up the stairs, before holding her hand out for him. “So, Sylv, what’s the plan?”

Almost instantly, his face turned red. _She had given him a nickname!_ It was something so small, so unimportant, but coming from her… It felt incredible. “I, um… Maybe we should, uh, you know…” Unfortunately, the use of the nickname had completely taken over his thoughts, and had stopped him from stringing together a coherent sentence.

For a moment, Byleth watched him in confusion, before realising what the matter with him was. “The nickname too much? Want me to save it for when we’re in our room, rather than outside?”

“N- No, I just never expected you to give me one… You don’t seem like the sort of person to give them,” he said quietly, rubbing at the back of his neck as his blush subsided. “Anyway… In terms of what to do, maybe… Get something to eat?”

* * *

* * *

“Professor? May I ask you a question?” Byleth had been busy in the cardinal’s room looking over maps of the Leicester Alliance when a voice came from behind her. She hadn’t been expecting company, so it came as a surprise. She looked up in confusion, before a smile formed on her face.

“Of course, Dimitri,” she nodded, watching as he sat down on a neighbouring seat at the table. “What are you wanting to ask?” She placed her pen down, and looked at him curiously.

Dimitri tapped his finger on the table before sighing. “I have concerns about what is to come, with assisting Claude. Am I wrong in assuming by the phrasing in his letter that he is wanting us to participate in a pincer attack with the Alliance forces once the Empire attacks Derdriu?” He pulled out the letter which he had received two weeks earlier, back when the army was in Fhirdiad, and passed it over the her.

She spent a moment reading through it, and nodded. “You’re not wrong. I can’t really think of any other way to interpret it. What is concerning you about it?” she inquired, handing the letter back over to him.

“Timing is what is bothering me… We likely will only have a very slim period of time in which to arrive in Derdriu. We need to get there after the Empire does, but before the city is taken over… That could quite literally be no more than one hour. How can we be certain that we will arrive during that time frame? All it would take is an obstacle in the road, and any and all support we could receive from the Alliance lords in our fight against Edelgard…” Byleth watched as he clenched his fist at saying her name, and based on the way that he quickly threw his arm through the air to his side, he was being haunted by the ghosts of those he had lost for merely saying her name. “All that support could disappear in an instant.”

Byleth nodded along to his worries, before resting her cheek on her hand as she tried to think of a solution. She used her hand to cover her mouth as a small yawn escaped her mouth, then tried to focus again.

Next thing that she knew, her shoulder had been shaken, and Dimitri was waving his hand in front of her face. “Professor… You started to fall asleep,” he said, before frowning. “Forgive me if I am stepping over a line here, but… I know that you and Sylvain tend to… _be awake_ until the early hours…” She raised an eyebrow at his words as he tried to think on how to continue. “Are you having enough time to sleep?”

For a few moments, Byleth was silent. She then quietly laughed at Dimitri’s phrasing. Even after all he had been through, his manner of talking about _certain_ topics reminded her of the awkward prince she had taught five years earlier. “Don’t worry, Dimitri. I’ve been sleeping well. It’s only over the past few days I’ve been more tired than usual, but I’m putting that down to almost three weeks of close to non-stop travelling, and then having everything no more than a ten minute walk away over this past week,” she smiled.

Dimitri frowned, but nodded in acknowledgement. “If you say so, Professor… But please do take care of yourself. I do not want you to be working like this if you feel too tired, understand?”

“Of course,” she said, before turning her attention back to her maps. “Now… with regard to your question…” She paused as she looked over the maps, before picking up a pen and drawing a circle around a wooded area near to the entrance of Derdriu. “Perhaps this mission would be best for only the core members of the army to participate in. The two of us, the others from the Blue Lions, Seteth, and Flayn. A group that small could arrive _before_ the Empire, and wait for them to launch their attack. We can make our move once they clash with Claude’s forces.”

“Hmm… That does sound like a good plan.”

* * *

* * *

Byleth was doing her best to keep herself as pulled together as she possibly could. Ever since her conversation with Dimitri, she kept finding herself yawning, even if she had gone to bed early the night before. However, she began to notice that there was more than just her tiredness which was causing a problem. She had found herself losing her usual appetite (though not her usual hunger),

Three days before they were set to leave for Derdriu, she had woken up feeling dizzy, and almost as though she needed to be sick. Much to her relief, she had noticed that Sylvain had already woken up and left to do whatever he needed to that day, meaning that she didn’t have to burden him by telling him that she was feeling like that.

She also felt quite lucky that their room was situated on the second floor of the monastery – it had her close to the infirmary, which meant that she could easily go there to get some sort of herb or medicine to keep the unwell feeling at bay. Of course, that would be if her legs didn’t feel like dead weights as she pulled herself out of bed.

It took a good few minutes for her to make her way over to the closet to grab hold of her clothes, and just as long to get changed into them from her nightwear. Once she had done that, she trudged her way over to the door – not even caring for putting her boots on as she did so.

When she reached the infirmary, she felt relief when she saw Mercedes inside, humming as she looked through supplies ready to take with them when it was time to go to battle. It didn’t take long for the healer to notice her in the doorway, and gasp.

“Professor! Good morning!” Mercedes smiled as she made her way over to Byleth, and took hold of her hands. “What brings you here today?”

Byleth smiled back, before biting her lip. “You… don’t happen to know if there is anything here that can help with an unsettled stomach? I woke up feeling a bit nauseous…”

Mercedes took a few steps back, before approaching a cupboard. “Hmm… Aha! There is a tea which I can make with some of the herbs available here that could help. Would that be okay, Professor? Most of our supplies are packed away for our journey, so it may be the only option…”

Slowly, Byleth made her way over to one of the seats and sat down. “Anything is good, as long as it gets rid of this feeling.”

“Let me get some water then. I’ll be right back, Professor!” Mercedes walked over to the door, before pausing. “Would you like me to get Sylvain for you?”

“No… He’s busy preparing for the battle. I’d rather not keep many people from their preparations…”

Mercedes nodded, before making her way out of the room in order to get the water needed for the tea. That gave Byleth the opportunity to sit in the silence, and savour the feeling of the cool breeze coming in through the open window of the infirmary. She almost felt the urge to close her eyes, but stopped herself before she did, knowing that she wanted to _not_ feel unwell over sleeping even more.

Eventually, Mercedes returned, and began to prepare the tea. As they waited for the herbs to steep in the water, she too sat down and sighed quietly. “May I confide in you with something, Professor?” she asked, giving her former teacher a small smile. “I… I have found myself growing rather close to Dedue over recent weeks. I feel as though I have fallen in love with him.”

Byleth’s eyes widened, before she nodded. “You have always been accepting of your differences. I recall when you were both students that you had asked him to teach you of the Gods and Goddesses of Duscur, and took great interest in his culture. He always seemed happy after having those conversations with you.”

Mercedes giggled at what Byleth said, and nodded. “I do wonder though… How did you and Sylvain fall in love? It was quite surprising when we found out that the two of you had slept together, after Felix got mad at him, accusing him of using you…” She trailed off, another thought having come to her head, but not speaking so that Byleth could answer her question.

For a moment, Byleth was deep in thought, before sighing. “I don’t quite know when I fell in love. But I did notice that I tended to favour him over others when I was a professor, and that I gravitated towards him when Dimitri was much more unstable. As for him… He said it was ‘love at first sight’, but only confessed after I asked why he was avoiding me after the fight at Gronder Field. He saw me hug Dimitri, and was jealous.”

All that Mercedes could do was gasp, before laughing and shaking her head. “I never took him for the jealous sort,” she smiled, before getting up to pour Byleth a cup of the tea now that it was ready for drinking.

When she took a sip, Byleth winced at the taste. It was very bitter, but if it would help to get rid of the nausea…

“I… I do have one more question, Professor. It may sound a bit personal, but please tell me the truth…” Mercedes took a seat once more, her face now laced with concern. “When you have sex with Sylvain, you _do_ take precautions against pregnancy, yes?”

The question was enough to make Byleth freeze for a moment, mostly as she tried to think back. She knew that Mercedes wasn’t trying to pry details like that out of her for the sake of gossip, but instead because she was a healer. It was her job to ask questions like that.

She then looked away, and bit her lip. “Yes… I do my best to make sure to, but…” Her mind went back to the day that they had spent at Sylvain’s home, all those weeks earlier. They had sex that morning, but a mere few minutes after, the Margrave had arrived and wanted to speak to them. She had been so distracted with the job at hand… “There was one time when I was so busy, it slipped my mind…”

“Professor… Do you mind if I use some magic to check?”

Byleth was silent as she nodded, her eyes wide as she took another sip of the bitter tea. She was worried now. A war was no time for a child! They hadn’t planned to have children – that was a conversation they were waiting to have once the fighting had died down!

Her hand started trembling when Mercedes finished with her spell, the silence in the room unnerving as she waited for her to say something. _Anything._

Eventually, Mercedes took a deep breath and placed her hand on her knee.

“W-Well…?”

“You are indeed pregnant, Professor,” she calmly stated, before gasping as the cup fell out of Byleth’s hand, shattering as it hit the floor with tea spilling everywhere. “Let me get something to clean that up. Please do not worry, Professor… You are in good hands.”

Once Mercedes left the room, Byleth felt tears begin to slip down her face. She felt an overwhelming mix of emotions that she had never felt before. Delight, excitement, anxiety, and dread. An incoherent mess of happy and sad.

_But they were at war… War was no place for a pregnant woman, nor a child._

* * *

* * *

Sylvain wiped his brow as he caught his breath in the middle of a sparring session against Felix. They had been at it for a while now, and appeared to be at a stalemate. When one of them appeared to be winning, the other managed to pull themselves back up. Whilst Felix had the advantage in speed, Sylvain had the advantage in manoeuvrability.

The other Blue Lions were watching on in anticipation, eager to see which of the pair would eventually emerge victorious.

“Heh… I think you’re getting worn out, Felix. Surely you have more than that in you?” Sylvain taunted, gesturing with his hand to bring on the next attack. “The only thing with being so quick is that it is easier to tire.”

Felix growled, before going in for a quick succession of slashes at his lance. “But another thing is that being quick can make opponents lower their defences when they least expect it!” He was quick to slide across the ground under Sylvain’s lance as he tried to retaliate, before going in to sweep his legs out from underneath him.

Sylvain jumped to avoid being sent crashing to the ground, before casting some magic to force some distance between them both.

The two stared off again, adjusting the grasp of their weapons as they thought on their next attacks. The atmosphere in the training grounds were intense.

At least until the doors opened. Sylvain briefly looked away, in the hope that it was Byleth coming to join the audience which they had for their match. Felix took advantage of the situation, and knocked the lance out of his hands and pointed his sword at his neck.

“Yield, Sylvain.”

Disappointment was all that he felt as he raised his arms as Mercedes entered the grounds before he sighed. “Fine… I yield,” he muttered, watching as Felix smirked triumphantly. “We should have a rematch at some point.”

“Yeah. I’m down for that.” Felix nodded as he sheathed his sword, before patting his shoulder and making his way to the sidelines so that others could use the training grounds.

Sylvain then sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t believe that he had made such a rookie mistake as getting distracted by a door. But… he at least felt _somewhat_ justified with the distraction – he hadn’t seen Byleth yet that day, aside from when she was still sleeping as he got ready that morning.

He crouched down to pick up his lance before he noticed that Mercedes had started running over to him.

“There you are!” Mercedes was quick to grab hold of his arm when she reached him, sounding tired – almost as though she had been running around everywhere just to look for him. “I need you to come with me. I cannot explain here though.”

For a moment, he was confused as she tugged at his arm. Then he had a thought. “Is this about Byleth…?”

“Yes, but as I said, I cannot explain here.”

Seeming as he had no further reason to remain in the training grounds, he quickly called out to Dimitri, and tossed the lance over to him as he prepared for a practice match with Dedue. Moments later, Mercedes had hold of his arm and was pulling him away.

Sylvain had no idea what to say as Mercedes led him through the monastery, though he did feel worry as he wondered what all of this could have been about. After Dimitri had told him about two weeks earlier, he had noticed that Byleth had been awfully tired as of late. Could it have been something to do with that? Or maybe there had just been some sort of problem in their room which Mercedes had offered to get him for. He simply didn’t know what it could have been about.

Eventually, he realised that Mercedes had led him to the infirmary, which intensified his worry.

“Mercedes, what are we doing here? Has something happened to Byleth?” he questioned as the door was pushed open, and he was pulled inside. His face was filled with concern as he then saw Byleth sat on a seat, staring out of the window as she held onto her arms.

“Sylvain… talk to her. She can tell you…”

By now, Byleth had turned away from the window and had stood up. He barely had a chance to ask what Mercedes had meant by what she had said before Byleth had ran over to him and had started crying into his shoulder.

“Byleth…? What’s going on?” His voice was a whisper as he wrapped his arms around her, and rested his head against hers.

For a moment, Byleth remained quiet, before moving back slightly. “Sylv, I…” She gulped as she tried to find her words, before taking a deep breath. “I’m pregnant.”

Sylvain could only blink for a few moments as those two words took their time to sink in. She was…

“Oh Goddess…” he whispered, before grabbing hold of her tightly as he pressed a kiss to her lips. “You are? That’s… That’s wonderful news…”

_Wonderful news that his father wasn’t going to hear about until the last possible opportunity._

* * *

* * *

Come nightfall, after a day of nothing but giving all of his attention to Byleth and their unborn child, Sylvain had found himself in the Garreg Mach Cathedral. He was not the most pious of people in the monastery, but he had finally found a reason to pray to the goddess that day.

He sat on the front pews in the Cathedral, looking at the lit candles as they flickered in the moonlight which was coming in through the gaping hole in the roof. A small smile came to his face as he proceeded to close his eyes and hold his hands together.

“Goddess Sothis…” he began, lowering his head so that it rested on his hands. “I pray to you to look after Byleth and my unborn child during these coming months… They are the most precious things in my life, and I do not want to lose either of them…” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I may not be as religious as I could be, but I ask this of you…”

Sylvain opened his eyes then, and looked down at his hands and the floor as he found the words which he wanted to say. When they came to him, his eyes closed again. “I also wish for those that Byleth and I have lost look out for us… Miklan, you may have hated me, and I may have thought of you as a piece of garbage. But I learned from you and our father that a person’s worth should not be based on a crest. Whether this child bears one or not, I will love them all the same…” His thoughts began to drift towards Byleth. “Jeralt and… Sitri, I think? I promise I will look after your daughter, your grandchild… They mean the world to me. I will always be there for them… I know that even beyond the grave, you share the same sentiment…”

He then let out a loud sigh as he pulled his hands apart, opened his eyes once more, and began to look towards the moon again. It was as he did this that he heard footsteps and the sound of something dragging across the floor. The person stopped as they noticed his presence.

“Sylvain… It is not often you are seen here,” Dimitri stated, as he went and sat down to his side. “Has something happened?”

Briefly, Sylvain glanced at Dimitri, then nodded. “I guess you can say that, yeah… I only pray to the Goddess when I have a reason, and… today I have one.”

Dimitri nodded, but continued to watch Sylvain. He noticed that there was a distant look in his eyes. “Care to share with me?”

“I don’t feel ready to widely share what I prayed for, but there is something on my mind…” Sylvain muttered, before taking a deep breath. “Do you think that the war will end soon? I long for the day that I can wake up with Byleth, and not have to worry about another day of preparations and fighting and hoping that we make it out alive… A day where I can look forward to the future.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of times I had to double check the timeline was a bit confusing, and fortunately I think it's still consistent!! Just in case though, here is the super brief summary!
> 
>   * **Week 0:** Meeting Sylvain's father
>   * **Week 1:** Liberating Fhirdiad
>   * **Week 2:** Return to Garreg Mach
>   * **Week 3:** Sleepy Byleth talking to Dimitri
>   * **Week 4:** Byleth still tired!
>   * **Week 5(and a half?):** Pregnancy discovered
> 



	9. Telling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Do you remember when you were asking me if I was okay, when we were on our way to Fhirdiad a few weeks ago?” he asked, pulling out the nearest seat to him and sitting down on it as he ran his hands through his hair._
> 
> _Byleth turned towards him and frowned. “You said that your father had been accusing you of using me like other women in your past, and that he was trying to find out about my crest,” she said, strapping her sword to her hip. “You were out of sorts for a while because of it.”_
> 
> _He nodded slowly, before taking a deep breath. “That’s not all he said."_

Sylvain had taken those next two days before the march to Derdriu to think about their current situation. Mercedes had already reassured them both that for now, Byleth was safe in carrying out her usual work, so long as she maintained a proper sleep schedule and continued to do what she could to ease the morning sickness. She was also not to push herself as much as she usually would in the coming battle.

Soon enough, his thoughts had reached a conclusion.

“I think we need to tell Dimitri,” Sylvain said, giving Byleth a concerned frown as they prepared to leave Garreg Mach. “I don’t know if you’re planning on telling anyone, but I think we have to tell at least him.” His eyes met hers for a brief moment, before he looked away. “The pair of you are our leaders, if we just forget about Seteth and the Church for a moment. We need to prepare for when Mercedes says that you can’t join us out there...”

Byleth could hear the worry in his voice, and could feel it in the way that his hand was shaking as it rested on her cheek. She brought her hand up to his, and gave him a reassuring smile. “I know.”

“And... And we both know he can be quite intense with his orders on the battlefield, which is exactly what you’ve been told to avoid.” His voice had dropped to a whisper. “I just want this damn war to end... We wouldn’t have to worry about any of this.”

Silently, Byleth wrapped her fingers around his, and closed her eyes. “So do I…” She followed that with a small step towards him, and resting her free hand on his shoulder. “But I say we could put a more positive spin on this war… We’re fighting to make Fódlan a safer place for our child.”

He supposed that she was right in what she was saying. A place where fighting and death was commonplace was far from an ideal place to start a family. Every battle that they fought brought them one step closer to ending the war. They could only hope that it was ended by the time that their child was born.

After a few long moments of quiet, Byleth sighed and took a step back, letting go of him. “If we have to tell Dimitri, it is probably best to tell him after the strategy meeting soon. We can ask for him to stay behind after and let him know then,” she said, before walking over to where the Sword of the Creator was propped up against the wall. “We will have to hope that Seteth doesn’t decide to remain behind afterwards too. If he hears, there’s almost no doubt that even with Mercedes’ reassurances I’ll be kept in Garreg Mach without a word in edgeways. The joys of being Rhea’s chosen successor and being pregnant and all…”

Sylvain found himself quietly laughing at what she was saying. It was definitely true… Seteth did tend to get fiercely protective of those important to him (and the Church). There were definitely times where he had gone to absolute extremes to keep Flayn safe, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the same honour would be extended to Byleth.

It was then that his heart sank. He at least felt some sort of joy in even the likes of Seteth being told about their child at some point in the near future. That courtesy was not extended to his father. And… he couldn’t keep Byleth in the dark about what he had said to him any longer.

“Do you remember when you were asking me if I was okay, when we were on our way to Fhirdiad a few weeks ago?” he asked, pulling out the nearest seat to him and sitting down on it as he ran his hands through his hair.

Byleth turned towards him and frowned. “You said that your father had been accusing you of using me like other women in your past, and that he was trying to find out about my crest,” she said, strapping her sword to her hip. “You were out of sorts for a while because of it.”

He nodded slowly, before taking a deep breath. “That’s not all he said. I… I felt so _angry_ at the other things he said to me that I tried to shut it out of my head as best as I could, thinking that it wouldn’t matter. Not until the war was over, not until I had the chance to properly propose to you…” He buried his head into his shaking hands, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Byleth quickly made her way over to him and crouched down in front of him, resting her hands on his knees as she looked at him with concern. “But now that we’ve found out that we are having a child… I- I have constantly had his words stuck in my head…”

Seeing how much pain Sylvain was going through, and hearing it in his voice tugged at Byleth’s heartstrings. They had many serious, emotional conversations over the time they had been together, but none of them compared to the sadness he was exuding.

“He said to me… that the only way he would believe that anything between us was serious was if we had a child as soon as the war is over,” he eventually said, his voice sounding almost like he was spitting venom. “But _oh no_ , not just a child. Specifically a crest-bearing child. Anything else could just be abandoned and disinherited, just as he did to Miklan. He said it was my ‘duty’ to House Gautier for there to be more crest-bearing heirs.”

Sylvain went to wipe the tears from his eyes when he felt Byleth’s fingernails digging into his legs. She may still not have been the best at showing her emotions, but he could see the anger in her eyes. However, that was quick to subside when her mouth straightened and reached her hand up to use her thumb to brush away some of the tears. “Don’t let what he said get to you… Even if that is what he says, he can’t enforce it. We will love this child, crest or not, and nothing can change that.”

Slowly, she rose to her feet and held her hands out for him. A smile finally returned to his face as he gratefully took hold of them. Once he was on his feet, she leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I can already tell that you’ll be a wonderful father, you big softie.”

“Oh, so I’m the big softie? I don’t know…” Her words had reassured him greatly, and finally telling her about what had been on his mind was a massive weight off his shoulders. For the first time since she told him that she was pregnant, he felt _genuinely_ happy. “I think that you’re a bit soft too, Byleth…” He moved his hands to rest on her stomach, which was still mostly flat and wasn’t indicative that she was pregnant at all unless you looked extremely closely. “Right about here.”

Byleth quietly laughed at his words, before they kissed once again. He kept his hands firmly where they were, before sighing into her lips. It was the first time he had actually touched her there since she said that she was pregnant too. There had been a lot he hadn’t actually done since she had told him because of the fears brought on by what his father had said, but fully intended to make up for it now that he had a clearer mind.

He couldn’t wait for the day where he could put his hands exactly where they were now, with the difference being that he could feel the baby bump, and even the little movements of their child from within her.

Once he had gotten over that thought, he stepped back so that he could grab hold of the Lance of Ruin and her hand. That was followed by him giving her a small wink as he gave a slight gesture towards the door “Well, my lovely Byleth, should we go to this strategy meeting then?”

* * *

* * *

“I believe that brings everything to a close… Remember that we leave at dawn tomorrow to make our way to Derdriu,” Byleth stated, rolling up the heavily annotated map set out before her. “Unless Dimitri has anything to say, everyone can leave to finish their preparations.”

When Dimitri, who was sat to her right, shook his head, quiet chatter filled the room as all of those set to participate in the battle to save Derdriu began to leave. It took a few minutes for everyone to begin to leave, until eventually, five people remained.

On their way towards the meeting, Sylvain had asked Byleth if it was okay that two others were given the news which they were going to tell Dimitri. He said that it was only fair that if one of his childhood friends got to know that all of them got to know. Byleth had agreed, so as well as Dimitri, Ingrid and Felix were also present.

After a few moments, all five of them were sat by the end of the table, Felix visibly disgusted at the way in which Sylvain had hold of Byleth’s hand whilst rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

“Well… I am certainly curious about what you two are wanting to say, asking for us to stay behind like this,” Dimitri said, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at the couple. “Is there some sort of new, secret plan for our coming fight that only we can know?”

Byleth shook her head. “It’s nothing to do with the coming battle. It’s just something we need to tell you all. Aside from you three, the only person who knows anything about this is Mercedes,” she said, taking a deep breath. “We were only going to tell Dimitri, but Sylvain said that we should include you two as you’re all close friends,” Byleth explained, looking towards Ingrid and Felix.

Ingrid nodded, whereas Felix rolled his eyes.

“We may as well keep things brief, but…” Sylvain said, leaning back on his chair slightly. “It’s a bit unexpected, as normally we would do something to make sure that this wouldn’t happen, but what happens, happens. Byleth’s pregnant.”

There were three vastly different reactions to what they had just been told. Dimitri’s eye was wide, his mouth open as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t. Felix had stood up and placed his hands on the table, managing to send his chair crashing to the ground in the process. He looked both shocked and disheartened (probably because it meant that he had lost his favourite sparring partner for a few months). Ingrid, meanwhile, had a smile on her face as she looked between the two, making the occasional glance towards Byleth’s stomach.

Eventually, Ingrid sighed when she finally looked between Felix and Dimitri. “Congratulations, both of you. I’m certain that these two share my sentiments,” she said, giving Dimitri a light tap on the back of his head to return him to reality, and nudging Felix with her elbow.

Once Dimitri had finished processing what was said, he nodded. “Indeed…” He then brought his hand up to his chin, as though he had come to a realisation. “Is this why I found you in the Cathedral, praying to the Goddess a few nights ago, Sylvain?”

A grin came to his face as he released his grasp of Byleth’s hand and raised his arms into the air as if in surrender. “You got me, your highness. Yeah…” He lowered his hands, and sighed quietly. “I was in a bit of a state of shock at that point after being told myself, so I was praying that nothing bad would happen to Byleth or our child.”

“Understandable,” Dimitri nodded, before finally, he frowned. “This does bring up a problem, however… Is it safe for you to join us in battle, Professor? You could be put in harm’s way, and if the Empire were to find out, you would become a target to them. They have proven themselves to use dirty, underhanded tricks, and I have no doubt that they would not hesitate to use the pregnant successor to Archbishop Rhea to get what they want.”

Byleth straightened her back, fully aware that such a question would be asked. “I have spoken to Mercedes, and at least for this coming battle in Derdriu, I will be fine. I am not visibly with child, so I can wear my armour as I usually would. I have simply been told to not push myself when I fight, and where possible, to stay near to somebody for if my condition were to change,” she explained. “As for future battles, that is up for debate. It depends on where and when they will take place, and whether my presence is necessary.”

“So I take it that you’ll be sticking with Sylvain when we’re in Derdriu?” Felix asked, receiving a nod in response. “I’ll stay with you both too. Last time we were in a battle, from what I recall, the two of you were almost killed. No harm in an extra person to keep you love-sick idiots alive.”

For the next few minutes, the group started to discuss what to do during the coming battle, for if it did come to the point that Byleth would have to withdraw from the battlefield. That eventually transitioned into a conversation about anything which came to their heads, until it reached the point that they were all starting to feel a bit hungry.

Felix and Ingrid were the first to excuse themselves to go to the dining hall. Byleth and Sylvain decided to leave a few minutes later, but stopped when Dimitri asked for them to wait another minute.

“I must ask… Have you both informed Margrave Gautier of your news?”

Byleth tensed up, whereas Sylvain sighed. It took him a few moments, but Sylvain eventually shook his head. “No. I would rather he not know for now. I’ll tell him eventually, but… not now.”


	10. Derdriu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Claude had been just about to go over to his wyvern after entrusting them with his house’s relic weapon when he stopped in his tracks. “Before I go… There is something else I want to say,” Claude said, turning around with a grin on his face. “When’s the wedding, Teach? I wouldn’t mind an invite.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit of a shorter chapter I think... But it does end with ~~my favourite three houses character, Claude~~ a light-hearted moment~

There had been distinct pros and cons to only bringing the key members of the Kingdom and Church army in the battle to save Derdriu and Claude from the Empire.

It had been quickly discovered that the citizens of the city had been evacuated over recent days, which was quite useful as there was no risk of putting those who were innocent in the line of danger. As well as that, it was quickly discovered that though Derdriu as a whole was under attack, Claude was the primary target. Once he fell, the Alliance would fall with him into the Empire’s grasp.

The small group had meant that they had the opportunity to get around the city without the worry of soldiers trying to keep up with them. The ability to get around quickly became even more important when Empire reinforcements began to enter the city through a series of gates to the west.

It was at that point that Claude’s voice could be heard above all of the fighting – a request to stop the reinforcements. Upon hearing that, Dimitri knew exactly what to do and who to get to do it. Byleth, Sylvain, and Felix were redirected to the western side of the city.

Only once they got into combat with the reinforcements the disadvantages of small groups began to become clear. There were _many_ enemies, more than they could count. There was only three of them.

What was fortunate was that the three of them all had their relic weapons. Byleth could keep her distance when attacking and being attacked with her sword, Sylvain could get close to the enemies with his lance, and Felix kept them all safe between attacks with his shield. It was a surprisingly efficient dynamic.

_It also kept Sylvain’s mind at ease._

Eventually, they had managed to get through a large wave of reinforcements, and found themselves in a north-western corner of the city. They were tired, and covered in the blood of the soldiers they had cut down. Felix had been very quick to go over to a nearby wall to lean on it and catch his breath.

“Phew… That was tiring,” Sylvain eventually sighed, wrapping his arm around Byleth’s waist. “You okay, Byleth?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her lips. At this point, Felix tutted and made his presence scarce to look out for if any enemies were nearby.

Byleth smiled against his lips as she let her sword drop to the floor so that she could wrap her arms around his neck. “I’m fine. Tired, but fine,” she said, pressing their foreheads together.

“Good… I’m happy as long as you and the baby are okay.”

As they spoke, Felix was rolling his eyes nearby. Even if he couldn’t see them with all of their kissing and hugging, he could still hear them both over the sounds of distant battle. That, and the sound of horse hooves nearby.

_That… was confusing. Sylvain hadn’t brought his horse to this battle. Who else would be using one?_

He was quick to return to the pair, and cleared his throat to get their attention. “We need to move. There’s somebody nearby, and I think it would be best if we re-group with everyone else before they find us-!”

“Too late. You’ve been found.”

The next few moments happened in a blur. A blast of magic, one which the trio identified as a Thoron attack, went directly towards them. Byleth released her hold of Sylvain to grab hold of the Sword of the Creator from the ground before doing her best to dodge the attack. Sylvain took a quick step back, almost falling down in the process. Felix made sure to have his shield out as he also tried to get out of the way.

All of them took a bit of damage from the attack, in the form of a slight shock. Felix had taken a bit more damage than the others, having been in the middle of the group when the attack was launched.

“Well, what have we here… Two little rats, and the one whose presence always seems to ruin our plans…” It was easy to tell that the person who was approaching them had their attention fixed firmly on Byleth

“Sylvain! Go and get Dimitri here – _now_ ,” Byleth was quick to order, giving him a worried glance. He gave her a hesitant look, not wanting to leave her and Felix alone with their attacker, but was quick to turn around and make a move.

Felix was stunned when he heard Byleth’s order, and went to question it before they both had to dodge another attack – this time dark magic.

Eventually, he got his chance when they had managed to get back together following the attack. “Why did you send Sylvain?! I’m the quickest of the three of us!”

Byleth frowned, before lashing out her sword to create a bigger distance between them and the enemy. “This man seems to have a quarrel with me, and you have your shield. Strategically speaking, he was the soundest choice to send.”

“Yes, but you’re-! You know!”

“I’ll be fine, Felix. I can still hold my sword, so I’ll be fine.”

* * *

* * *

The Empire forces had been defeated. Derdriu (and Claude) had been saved from falling under Empire control.

It had eventually been discovered, once Dimitri and Sylvain had re-joined Byleth and Felix, that the man who had attacked them was Edelgard’s uncle – Lord Arundel. He had been the one leading the charge in Derdriu, and him falling caused the remainder of the forces to retreat.

Once that was dealt with, the Kingdom and Church forces met with the Alliance’s in the harbour. They had asked for Claude to join their efforts in ending the war, but were instead caught by surprise when he said that he couldn’t. That he had somewhere else that he needed to be. Even more surprising was when he announced that the Alliance had decided to disband, and would become part of the Kingdom.

Claude had been just about to go over to his wyvern after entrusting them with his house’s relic weapon when he stopped in his tracks. “Before I go… There is something else I want to say,” Claude said, turning around with a grin on his face. “When’s the wedding, Teach? I wouldn’t mind an invite.”

Byleth visibly tensed up, and Sylvain spat out some water he was drinking a bit further back.

“We aren’t engaged!” Sylvain quickly shouted, causing both Claude and Dimitri to begin laughing at their reactions. He then made his way over to the group, his face as red as his hair. “Seriously, we’re not! We’ve got a war to finish!”

Dimitri calmed down his laughing, and pinched the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. “And yet, you both…” he started, before deciding not to speak, fully aware that Claude would have quite the reaction. He knew he made the right decision, as he saw the pair looking at him with wide eyes. “Actually, that isn’t my place to say. My apologies.”

Claude eyed the group up in suspicion, but instead of questioning, he began to turn his attention towards his wyvern again. “Well, whether you’re engaged or not, send me an invite, yeah? I’m sure I can give you my address once the war in Fódlan is over,” he smiled, before looking towards the horizon. “The citizens of Derdriu will be returning soon. We evacuated them by sea in advance of the Empire’s arrival, and informed them in advance that when they return the Alliance will be no more, and instead be part of the Kingdom. You Kingdom folk had better welcome them with a smile and an extended hand, they’ll need it after what the Empire has done to the place.”

Finally, Claude was ready to leave, which is when Byleth took a few steps towards him. “Are you certain about not wanting to join us? We could do with a tactical mind like yours soon, especially once I-,“ Byleth began, before she stopped when she realised that she was talking without thinking, in addition to Sylvain’s hand quickly covering her mouth.

“Oh… I get it now,” Claude smirked, tapping his head knowingly. “Well, unfortunately, I can’t take you up on the offer. Believe me, I’d love to, but… I simply can’t. I’d love to explain, but it’d take far too much time,” he stated, getting onto his wyvern. “By the way… If it’s a boy, have you ever considered the name Claude?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next is some good ol' smut and Family Drama™


	11. Confrontation and relaxation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon the return to Garreg Mach after saving Derdriu and Claude from the Empire, a surprising piece of news comes through - Margrave Gautier was at the monastery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A good old dose of family drama, as promised!

As the former Blue Lions returned to Garreg Mach, with the support of the former Alliance lords providing extra supplies and manpower, spirits had never been higher.

They had yet to decide on what their next actions were, but they knew that now, they could focus on bringing this war to an end. Edelgard was losing power by the day, the death of her uncle making a huge impact in this.

What made Byleth happiest about this chain of events is that she felt a bit calmer about the approaching time where she would have to step back from the front lines. With dependable allies and growing forces, it was reassuring.

Upon reaching the gates of Garreg Mach, there was a lot of chatter about what people were going to do after the battle. Felix was asking for Annette to join him in the training grounds, to help him with practicing with his shield at defending from magic attacks. Ingrid was talking to Dimitri and Ashe about possibly getting something to eat. Mercedes was wanting to check on Byleth’s health following the battle, whilst Sylvain was looking forward to just taking a bit of time to relax with her.

The conversations stilled when the gatekeeper approached them, greeting everyone, before saying something rather unusual. “I have something to report today. Margrave Gautier has an update on the status of the kingdom. He wished to deliver the report in person, and is waiting in the cathedral.”

In response, Dimitri nodded, whereas Sylvain had started muttering something under his breath. Byleth took hold of his hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze as if to reassure him.

Eventually, once a majority of the group had dissipated, the small group of Byleth, Sylvain, Dimitri, Dedue, and Mercedes remained behind.

“Why did he choose to come _here?_ ” Sylvain muttered, just loud enough for the group to hear. “He could have _written_ the report, but decided to do it in person...”

“Perhaps he was wishing to see His Highness in person. He was one of the Lords who did not accept his apparent death and resisted against the Empire all this time. After finding out that he was alive through you and the Professor, he may have wanted to see him,” Dedue suggested, receiving agreement from a majority of the group.

“Maybe...” Sylvain rubbed at the back of his head and took hold of Byleth’s hand, his way of reassuring himself that Dedue was right, and that was the only reason why.

“Will you be wanting to join me as I speak to the Margrave, Sylvain? I believe that the Professor should anyway, as the other leader of our army, but as it is your father, I see no harm in you joining us too,” Dimitri said after a few moments of silence, which is when Mercedes gasped.

“Have you both told the Margrave about the baby yet?”

As the only one of the group out of the loop, Dedue cast a confused look between everyone before quickly putting the pieces together. A lot of things as of late had implied to something going on with Byleth and Sylvain that was being kept quiet, and what Mercedes said had been the final piece of the puzzle.

“No,” Byleth stated, giving Sylvain a slight hand squeeze. “That is something that is still up for debate.”

Mercedes, being the sweet soul that she was, did not question the choice and nodded in acceptance. “Okay. Well, when you are finished with the Margrave, visit me in the infirmary and I'll check on how you and the baby are doing after that battle, Professor.”

* * *

* * *

“That is good to know. I am glad that whilst we finish this war, I am able to leave the kingdom in your capable hands, Margrave,” Dimitri nodded, having just received the report on the situation in the kingdom following Fhirdiad’s liberation. Byleth was stood beside Dimitri, whereas Sylvain was silently sat on one of the pews, thinking of what to say to his father once he had the chance to talk.

He knew what he needed to say, it was just the _how_ he was bothered about. He didn’t want to sound angry – which he did feel, to some extent – but he also didn’t want to sound apathetic to his father’s reasoning about having a child having a crest. He could understand why… But after what had happened to Miklan, he didn’t want to see anyone else follow such a path because their own family refused to accept them for something beyond their control.

He did consider asking for Byleth to tell his father – she had a much better way with words and much more self-control than him. At the same time, he didn’t want her to be the one to face his father when he reacts to the news and their decision regarding crests.

“What are you thinking about, Sylv? Dimitri is just finishing talking to your father now…” Byleth whispered when she walked over to him, and sat down to his side as she took hold of his hand. “Are we… telling him about the baby?”

Sylvain was silent for a moment, before sighing. “It’s better to do it sooner rather than later. I just… don’t know how to tell him, and I don’t want you to either,” he muttered, running his free hand through his hair. “All I want to do is tell him that we don’t care if this child has the crest of Gautier, the crest of Flames, or no crest at all…”

“Then… Just say that. If you need me to, I can step in and help you,” she reassured, before glancing across the Cathedral. “Dimitri is leaving…”

“Then… I guess that it is now or never, isn’t it?”

The pair stood up, and Byleth made sure to keep hold of Sylvain’s hands as they walked over to his father, who appeared to be waiting for them.

“… Father.”

“Sylvain.”

There was a tense silence in the air, which Byleth knew meant that when they had left Gautier lands before the Fhirdiad liberation, it had been on a bitter note between the father and son.

After a moment of mulling over what to say, Sylvain made eye contact with the Margrave as he asked a question. “Do you remember what you told me when I was last home? About what _you_ wanted if things were serious between Byleth and me?” There was a slight hint of resentment in his tone of voice.

The Margrave took a few seconds to think. “Yes. I wanted _you_ to take your role as heir to House Gautier seriously, and to provide more heirs once this war is concluded.”

Sylvain held back the urge to roll his eyes. “You’re missing out the part about crests. No need to dance around with your words, Byleth is fully aware of what you said,” Sylvain muttered, his hand squeezing hers somewhat tightly at the word ‘crests’. “Well… Lucky you. You’ve got some of what you wanted, even before the end of the war.”

“I do not fully understand what you are implying, Sylvain.”

Byleth could feel how clammy Sylvain’s hands were turning, and see the frustration on his face. She decided to step in, as he had done for her when they had both last spoken to the Margrave and her father was brought up as a topic of conversation. “We are expecting a child, Margrave. Your grandchild.”

The silence in the Cathedral following Byleth’s words was laced with anxiety and tension, yet also relief and joy.

“Then… that is indeed wonderful news,” the Margrave said, the faintest of smiled on his face. “Is it too early to find out about what the crest-?”

“About that…” Sylvain had interrupted his father mid-question, and was now staring at the ground. “We have spoken about the topic of our child and crests at length. We don’t care about which crest the child has if they end up with one, nor do we care if the child does not have one. Our child is our child, and crests will not play a part in their upbringing.”

“That is _insane_. For the sake of our house-!”

“For the sake of our house, _I lost my brother._ I am _not_ losing _my_ child over it either!” Sylvain snapped back, before shaking his head. “You have your heir – _me._ Let _me_ deal with mine,” he said, his voice turning to a whisper. “Even though this child isn’t even born, the amount of love I feel for them is beyond anything that I can explain. I could never bring myself to do what you did to Miklan.”

Once more, the Cathedral was completely silent. It was much harder to pinpoint the emotions now, but Byleth felt that it was time that she stepped in. There were tears slipping down Sylvain’s face, and she could hardly stand the sight.

“Margrave. You do also know that this child will also be more than an heir to House Gautier? I have been named as the current stand-in for Lady Rhea as Archbishop of the Church of Seiros as I possess the Crest of Flames, as well as being set to take on the role when she steps down,” she began, Sylvain now staring at her with wide eyes. Until that point, they had danced around the topic of her crest around his father, but now she had said it plainly and simply to his face. “Whether this child has a crest or not, they shall likely be next in line to take on the role of Archbishop when _I_ must stand down. This child is much, _much_ more than just another heir to your house.”

For a moment, the Margrave’s eyes were wide, mouthing ‘ _Crest of Flames?!’_ repeatedly. Sylvain also hadn’t been expecting what Byleth had said, and was looking at her with worry across his face.

“Promise me, Margrave… Whether this child has a crest or not, you will respect the decision which Sylvain and I have come to as expectant parents. We do not wish for them to be raised with very little family. They will only have me on my side. At least allow them to have a loving grandfather on Sylvain’s side who sees them for more than just a crest.”

“I… understand, Lady Byleth. I knew so little about you when I we were first introduced so I apologise for my lack of understanding of all of the circumstances surrounding yours or the child’s inheritance,” the Margrave said, in a surprising change of mind compared to minutes earlier. “I had best be leaving now.”

With that, the couple very quickly found themselves alone. Sylvain exhaled loudly as he started tapping his foot, before taking hold of Byleth’s other hand as he turned to face her. “You’re… You’re incredible, Byleth,” he whispered, followed by him leaning in and pressing a kiss to her lips. “You managed to get him to back off about the whole crest situation…”

She smiled at him, and took a small step closer to him so that they were close enough to hear the other breathe. “I figured that he was seeing it from the point of view of House Gautier as a whole, not from his own perspective. I just had to do the same, but from the perspective of my ‘affiliation’,” she said, freeing her hands to make air quotes with her last word. “I truly don’t know what my future is with regard to the Church… That depends on when we find Rhea, and if she is in a state to continue as Archbishop.”

Sylvain nodded in understanding, before he stretched his arms and smiled. “Anyway… Now that we’re done here, we need to get you to Mercedes. We’ve probably kept her waiting long enough…”

* * *

* * *

According to Mercedes, all had been well. Not even the slight shock she had received from Arundel’s attack had caused any sort of damage to the baby. The news had come as a huge relief to both Byleth and Sylvain.

When the pair eventually retired to their room, it barely took ten seconds for Sylvain to have backed Byleth into the door and had his lips against hers.

“I’ve not felt this happy in so long, Byleth,” he mumbled into her lips, his hands fumbling around as he pulled her coat off her shoulders. “I’ve been so stressed out about crests and telling my father about our child that I never realised it was really bringing my mood down, but now…” He kissed her again as she wrapped her hands around his neck and tangled her hands into his hair. “I really want to thank you for being by my side whilst I was feeling down, for choosing me out of anyone, and for being the mother to my child…”

“I would say that it should be the other way around... I should be treating you. You've been through a lot since we got the news about our child... You need to relax, Sylvain,” she whispered back, using her strength to separate them both, before pulling him over to their bed. She then carefully began to remove the armour that they had been wearing until that point, seeming as they had been too busy since their return to even do that. “You’re also always the one treating me at the moment... Give me the opportunity to help you relax after all the worry you’ve been through.”

Sylvain found himself unable to argue with her. Mostly because he had been pushed down onto the bed and she was leaning down to kiss him.

She started with a few small kisses against his lips, before moving towards his jaw and throat. “You know, there’s going to be a point where it’s going to be much harder to do this,” she whispered, leaving feather-light touches across his cheek as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his body. “I suppose it is fortunate that the little one decided to make me feel nauseous when they did, or else we likely would have found out when they started to grow...”

“I don’t think I'll mind having a bump in the way, you know...” Sylvain murmured, now running his hands across her back and occasionally teasing at the hem of her shirt. “I probably should confess that when we first had sex together, when you came to have some tea with me after I shut myself away because I was jealous of how close you and Dimitri were... My mind did wonder,” he began, letting go of Byleth as her attention was now focussed on removing his shirt. After helping her in removing it, they shared a quick kiss as he continued. “I did think about what would happen if I managed to make you pregnant. I liked the thought of you bearing my child, watching as you grow bigger, knowing that it was because of me...”

Byleth laughed and rolled her eyes when she cupped his cheeks and pressed their foreheads together. “Well, you don’t have to think about it now... It may not have been then that it happened, but it did,” Byleth said, her voice quiet. “If we’re taking this love-making session as time for confessions though, I have one of my own...”

Sylvain raised an eyebrow as he sat up, bring her up with him. His hands fell to rest on the window of skin between her shirt and her shorts, and she sighed quietly at how gentle he was being. “Go on, Byleth...”

“When we got back from Fhirdiad, when I went to my parents' grave and you stayed at a distance when I spoke to them... I was telling them that I felt really happy with you... and that once things were more peaceful, I wouldn’t mind settling down with you and maybe having a family, if you wanted one, that was...” she then laughed at herself, her hands moving to his shoulders, then further down to his chest. “Thinking on it, I would already have been pregnant at that time, but just didn’t know...”

For a moment, Sylvain was silent before he nodded. “I feel the same. I find myself looking toward the future much more since we got together. And I wouldn’t mind settling down and having a family with you too… Luckily, we have a head-start on one of those two,” he whispered, their lips meeting as his fingers gently stroked at her stomach. “Now… What were we doing again?”

“I was going to help you relax after all of this time you’ve been worrying,” she said in a hushed tone, her hands now lingering tentatively around his hips. “What would you like me to do?”

“Maybe…” He hesitated, before taking a moment to think. “I have an idea. Mostly because it’ll be hard for you to do once the pregnancy is further along,” he explained, before winking at her. “How about you use these?” He moved one of his hands so that he could press his thumb against her bottom lip.

Byleth nodded, and gave him another quick kiss before gently pushing him down onto the bed again. She then made quick work of unfastening his trousers, and discarding them alongside his shirt. She noticed that he was watching her every action closely, so she gave him a small yet sweet smile. His face turned red in reaction.

Slowly, she rested her hand on his leg, using her fingers to gently trace lines up and down the muscle she could feel. After taking a few moments to do that, she then moved her hand towards the growing tent in his underwear. He quietly groaned at the tender contact, his concentration on her every little action intensifying.

In response to his reaction to the touch, Byleth debated with herself on whether she would tease him for a moment. She decided against it, however – she had said that she would help him to relax, so that was what she was going to do.

She pulled at his underwear, freeing his erection before running her finger from the base to the tip. He shivered at the touch, and brought his hands to his face for a moment to wipe some off the sweat on his brow. Seeing Byleth just doing something as simple as touching him that way really did a number on him.

To make sure that he was completely relaxed before she used her mouth, Byleth stroked at his girth gently. He moaned into the palms of his hands at the slight friction on the sensitive skin, everywhere her hand touching feeling like it was burning once her hands moved away.

“’leth…” he mumbled when he finally moved his hands away from his face. She looked at his face with a hint of shock at what he had said – she had shortened his name as a nickname, but she hadn’t heard him do the same for her before. “I thought you were going to use your lips…?”

She smiled and nodded at him. “I am, I just want to make sure that you are as relaxed as you can be,” she said, before licking her lips. “I can’t just let the father of my child be left needing when I am meant to be helping him wind down, can I?”

He gave her a wide-eyed stare as she then leaned down, and pressed a small kiss to the tip of his cock. His breath got caught in the back of his throat as she then slowly brought him into her mouth, the sensation being something he had never felt before. They had both tried out a few different things in bed to see what their preferences were, and this was something they hadn’t done before.

He definitely liked it. He knew he was going to ask for this again in the future.

“Fuck… Byleth…” he groaned out when he felt her head move lower, to take as much of him into her mouth as she could without choking. Then there was the feeling of her tongue, something which he wasn’t expecting but was enjoying greatly.

As she steadily picked up a pace of bobbing her head up and down, taking in the feel and taste of him, she had to move one of her hands to take hold of her hair. It was beginning to stick to the sweat on her face, and was rather ticklish. She was surprised when she felt Sylvain stop her for a moment just so he could help her out.

“The least I can do whilst you’re doing that is to hold your hair,” he muttered as he tried to catch his breath. He felt her reach up to stroke his hand as thanks before she continued what she was doing with as much vigour as previously.

Eventually, he found his grasp of her hair wavering when he began to feel as though he was getting closer to his climax. His free hand was digging into the bedsheets below them, whilst he closed his eyes. “’leth, I… I don’t think that I can last much longer…” he groaned, the feeling of her mouth and tongue beginning to become overwhelming.

Despite his warning, she kept her mouth around him as he came, and he had to finally release his hold of her hair so that he could bring his arm to his face to wipe the sweat which was pouring off his brow.

After a brief moment Byleth raised her head, the sound of her mouth detaching from him being the only thing that he heard before opening his eyes and watching her wipe some of the saliva around her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt. It was… an awfully arousing sight.

Unfortunately, he was too tired to do much more. Byleth didn’t seem too far from sleep herself, and no wonder – there was moonlight entering the room through the windows.

“I think I’ll need to take this off,” Byleth eventually muttered, pulling her shirt over her head, and tossing it to the floor before picking something else up. “This will do for tonight,” she said, yawning as she hastily pulled the item of clothing on.

“My shirt?” Sylvain eventually asked, the blue-ish colour catching his attention as Byleth lay down beside him and pulled some of the sheets over them both. He followed that up with a yawn of his own, and pulling her against his bare body.

“Yes. It’s comfortable and smells like you,” she responded, resting her head against his chest. “Now… you need to get some sleep, Sylv…”

“So do you, ‘leth.”

“I know…” She sighed against his skin. “Good night…”

“Night…” he smiled, his eyes slowly drifting shut as something else came to his mind. He rested one of his hands on the side of her stomach as he quickly fell asleep. “Good night to you too, baby Gautier…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of felt it worthwhile to have a scene where Byleth did something for Sylvain, seeming as he did something for just her a few chapters back with the massage etc. so... Yeah. I kept procrastinating writing that part though!!!


	12. Life and death (1/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth's final battle before taking a step back from the front lines is to take place at Fort Merceus.

All of the key figures of the army were gathered as Dimitri and Byleth explained their next steps in bringing the war against the Adrestian Empire to an end. It had been decided that their next steps were to infiltrate Fort Merceus, the one major enemy stronghold between the former Alliance and Enbarr.

“We will procure as much enemy armour as possible – create it ourselves if we must – and infiltrate the fort. Once inside, we can begin our assault. They will be expecting an attack from the outside, not the inside. We have reason to believe that the Death Knight shall be leading the battle, with Caspar von Bergliez and Linhardt von Hevring as commanders. Our aims will be to remove them from the picture, but until closer to the time, that is all of the information which we have from spies within the fort,” Dimitri explained to those present, before turning to face Byleth. “Professor, do you have anything more to add?”

Byleth looked at him with a frown, knowing exactly what he was wanting her to say. Following discussions between the two of them, as well as Sylvain and Mercedes, a major decision had been made.

“Yes… I do. After the battle at Fort Merceus at the end of this moon, I shall not be joining you all in battles for the foreseeable future. I shall be taking on the role of strategist once the battle is over, meaning that I shall likely be remaining in Garreg Mach,” she stated, the majority of those gathered loudly making their shock and surprise known. “My health will not allow me to continue battling.”

Of anyone, it was surprisingly Seteth who was most vocal about this change in situation. “Professor, what are you going on about? If you are ailed, there are many healers that can help here. You are needed on the battlefield-!”

Byleth stood up, and rested her hands on the table. “Seteth. This decision has been reached following discussions including Mercedes – I will not be able to participate in battle as of the one at Fort Merceus. I am pregnant, and if I were to continue going out on the battlefield, I will be endangering more than just my own life,” she stated plainly, the entire room falling silent upon the mention of the pregnancy. “I would be endangering my life, my child’s life, and no doubt Sylvain’s life, should I end up in a difficult situation. You, of anyone, should know how important it is to protect your family…” Her eyes gazed between the shocked Seteth and wide-eyed Flayn, before she put on a small smile. “As I said, I will be taking on a role of strategist. I will be helping out in the war effort, just from the sidelines.”

* * *

* * *

As the moon began to pass, Byleth began to take notice of some changes happening to her. She was about nine weeks into the pregnancy, so the changes sounded about right from what healers and some books from the library had told her. She still had the occasional waves of morning sickness, and still kept finding herself tired at less than convenient times.

One new change had been that she had started craving cold, sweet food. Annette had taken great delight in hearing that, and had taken it upon herself to gather the best possible collection of frozen treats. Ice cream and frozen fruits had quickly become a staple part of her day-to-day meals, much to Sylvain’s amusement. Grapes in particular seemed to be her favourite fruit to crave frozen.

One particular change had started to bother Byleth though – her clothes, namely her usual shirt, were becoming harder to wear. It wasn’t even the tiny bump which was forming that was the problem, as her shirts only partially covered her stomach anyway. It was her breasts which were causing the problem. Mercedes had told her about that particular change, and suggested that she perhaps wore something a bit looser. Difficult, considering that her shirts were skin-tight to accommodate her armour.

Byleth had arranged to get some new clothes sorted, but in the meantime, she compromised with a few old shirts of Sylvain’s which he rarely wore. With the addition of a belt, they simply looked like loose-fitting blouses.

Armour was a complete other thing that she wasn’t going to deal with until just before they advanced on Fort Merceus.

As preparations went on to prepare for the next battle, Byleth began to grow concerned about whether the changes would have an impact on the battle. She knew for a fact that if the Death Knight were to be battling, his intention would be to fight her to the death. He had said as much on many occasions. She had even more reason now not to die, but all it would take is one risky attack and everything would be over for her. She feared the Death Knight now more than ever.

Fortunately, she would have Sylvain and Mercedes by her side in the battle. Mercedes seemed to have a curiosity about the Death Knight, but was also there to warp Byleth away should things become too dangerous – it had been one of the conditions discussed for her to take part in the battle. Sylvain was accompanying her as usual, as their dynamic worked in battle, and because he was stubborn with insisting that he remained by her side.

Eventually, she reached a point where all that was on her mind was that she would have to fight the Death Knight, and that she feared for hers and the baby’s life. The only other times she had felt such fear was when her father died, when she fell off the cliff, and when she and Sylvain were almost killed by a Titanus. She knew it was a bad thing to be focusing on, so she went to find Sylvain to talk to him about it.

It took her a while, but she managed to find him at the stables checking up on his horse. All that she found herself capable of doing was going over to him and holding onto his arm tightly.

He was caught by surprise at her appearance, but noticed straight away that something was wrong. “Byleth...?”

Her grasp tightened for a moment when he said her name, before he felt her take a deep breath to speak. “I'm scared about the battle...”

Sylvain frowned as he heard her words. He had always seen Byleth as someone brave and infallible, the fact that she was scared really concerned him. On the other hand, he knew that she would feel that way, as he felt that way too – things were bound to be dangerous, but they both wanted to survive for the sake of the other and their child.

“I'll be by your side the whole time, remember?”

“I know that, but... you remember what the Death Knight wants to do, right...? He wants to fight me to the death. Either he will die... or I will, and so will-!”

Sylvain quickly stopped her from speaking, and shook his head. “Don’t... Don’t think about that. Remember... you won’t be alone. I will protect you, and I swear that he won’t so much as leave a scratch on you without going through me first. Mercedes will be there too, and remember, she said that she would warp you away if you end up in danger.”

Byleth looked up at him then, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes. She then cupped his cheek as she leaned in to kiss him, his words being enough to help soothe some of her worry.

* * *

* * *

A chill went down Byleth’s spine when the day of the battle had arrived. She hadn’t slept the night before, though she felt that the same would go for all of her allies.

In the distance, she could see the familiar faces of Caspar and Linhardt amongst the army’s opponents. She had felt a bitter regret as many former Officer’s Academy students fell in battle against their army in the past, and no doubt the same would apply today.

“Professor... Are you ready? It is fine if you are not, Dimitri said that you can withdraw at any point,” Mercedes asked as she rested her hand on her shoulder. “Our main purpose here is to remove the main leaders so that we can take over the fort... And we are focussing on Emi- the Death Knight!”

Both Byleth and Sylvain caught the slip of the tongue as Mercedes spoke, and gave her a confused look.

“I am ready at the moment, Mercie... But... I apologise if I am overstepping by asking this, but do you know the identity of the Death Knight?” Byleth questioned, watching as Mercedes turned her head away slightly. “Mercedes...?”

“I... believe that I do...”

Sylvain walked over to Mercedes then, and took hold of her hand. “If you don’t want to tell us who it is, that’s entirely fine. But if you do tell us, we won’t say a word to anyone else unless you asked us to. You kept quiet about our child until we were ready to tell, so we can extend the same courtesy to you.”

Mercedes looked between him and Byleth, the smallest of sad smiles on her face. “The Death Knight... I believe him to be my younger brother, Emile... Or as you would know him, Jeritza...” she whispered, taking a deep breath. “I chose to join you both in this battle not just to help protect you both and your child... But also to talk him out of fighting for the Empire.”

“I understand why you would do that. It’s... It's crap having to fight family on the battlefield,” Sylvain sighed, thinking back to the day that they all had to fight Miklan. Even if, at that point, he didn’t care what happened to his brother, in retrospective he would’ve tried to find a way to talk him down before the Lance of Ruin had decided his fate of death as a beast.

His hand tightened around said lance, before looking towards the centre position of the fort.

Byleth stepped in then, to break apart the developing silence. “Mercedes... Perhaps you can talk to him before we resort to fighting. If he doesn’t sway to our side though...”

“I understand if it comes to the point that we must cut him down... He may be my brother, but he is still our enemy.”

After another few minutes, the sound of battle began to echo around the fort. Empire forces had started to mobilise, meaning that the three of them would have to begin to advance on the Death Knight before he turned on any of their allies upon the battle getting closer to him.

As a precaution, each of the three had their weapons drawn as they moved. They could be ambushed at any point, given that they were in the Empire’s most heavily reinforced place in Fódlan, not including Enbarr.

It did not take them long to be spotted by the Death Knight. Or rather, it did not take Byleth long to be spotted. She had to quickly bring her sword up to deflect the scythe which was swung in her direction, before Sylvain jumped in to knock the scythe away.

“You… You are of no interest to me… My battle is with _her_ ,” the Death Knight snarled in Sylvain’s direction, raising his arm to point at Byleth. “If you get in my way… I shall kill you.”

Before he could attack Byleth again, Mercedes stood in the way with her arms held out. “Emile, no... There is no need to battle her or to kill anyone else!” she shouted, her arms trembling. “Please, little brother… Put down your weapon. I beg of you…”

The Death Knight made a noise that sounded like a growl. “Mercedes… It is too late. My fate rests on whether I kill her, or she kills me… Move, before I must kill you too.”

At that point, Byleth had enough. It was clear that no progress was happening, and that it was likely that none was likely to happen. She placed her hand on Mercedes’ shoulder as she walked past her, and held her sword out.

“Fine. You want to fight me? Then you can fight me. But know this… Should you kill me…” Her hands tightened around her sword as she gritted her teeth. “Should you kill me, you will have a new fight on your hands,” she muttered, looking over at Sylvain who had a horrified look on his face.

“That is fine with me.”

Very quickly the Sword of the Creator clashed with the Death Knight’s scythe, the noise of each contact between the weapons echoing around the surroundings. In the background, Mercedes was already preparing to warp Byleth away should she end up injured, whilst Sylvain was waiting for an opportunity.

_Like hell he was going to let the Death Knight kill Byleth or his child._

Byleth could very quickly feel her strength waning. She was able to keep hold of her sword, but found that she could barely keep her footing. The Death Knight was relentless with his attacks, and she knew that she would be unable to avoid getting injured for much longer. She resorted to looking at Sylvain, and nodding at him as an indication for him to join in the fight.

The Death Knight did his best to attack Byleth once more, noticing that she seemed to be physically unstable, so she braced herself for an attack which would likely be the one to knock her off her feet. Except… she watched as the scythe was swung in a downward direction to the side… Slicing through Sylvain’s armour and his leg.

“I said… If you get in my way, I shall kill you.”

Byleth panicked as she watched Sylvain fall to the ground, and heard Mercedes shouting for her to look out from behind. Before the scythe coated in Sylvain’s blood cut through her throat, she activated her divine pulse power to before she had nodded at him.

She found that using that power had been even more draining on her than she expected, presumably because of the pregnancy and her energy levels not being the best anyway. She almost fell down onto the ground as a consequence, which led to the Death Knight preparing to make a killing blow, and Sylvain attacking to protect her, getting wounded by an attack against his chest in the process.

She attempted another pulse. That time, she did end up on the floor, and Sylvain ran over to pull her up, thankfully remaining out of the Death Knight’s reach as he did so. He then intercepted an attack with the Lance of Ruin once Byleth was on her feet, the blade of the scythe getting caught between the points of the lance.

“She warned you that you would have another fight on your hands if she were to die… But I can’t stand by any longer. If you want Byleth, you have to go through me!” He then used the tangled weapons to push the Death Knight back, before turning to Mercedes and giving her some sort of signal.

Before Byleth could react, she noticed her surroundings quickly change, and that… she was no longer with Sylvain and Mercedes. She had been warped over to where Dimitri and Dedue were fighting. They quickly noticed her presence, but before they could make their way over to her, and before she could react to having been warped away from the battle against the Death Knight, her tiredness from the divine pulses overcame her.


	13. Life and death (2/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“What have you done?”_
> 
> _“Emile, we have done exactly as the Professor said would happen... You have another fight to deal with now. We will not let you hurt her."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to practice writing fight scenes, so prepare for the battle between Sylvain and the Death Knight! (featuring Mercedes)

Sylvain had felt some relief once Mercedes had managed to send Byleth away from the Death Knight. That meant that she would either be with Dimitri or Seteth, and that they would keep her safe until the battle was over.

“What have you done?” The Death Knight's voice was quiet, but clearly angry.

“Emile, we did exactly as the Professor said would happen... You have another fight to deal with now. We will not let you hurt her,” Mercedes responded, her voice tinged with sadness. “I promised that I would protect her, and if it means having to fight my own brother... so be it.”

With a slight tut, Sylvain raised his lance to point it at the Death Knight. “Or you can just surrender. I don’t want Mercedes to have to deal with having to kill her own brother... Even if it’s the right thing to do, it still feels like crap!” he shouted, his feelings from the past getting entangled in his current emotions. “And you will not be battling Byleth again – I assure you of that. The closest you will be getting is me, as I will do _anything_ to keep her safe!”

The Death Knight remained silent, and looked between the two as his scythe remained by his side. The pair could only hope that he was mulling over his two options – surrendering himself and becoming a prisoner of the Kingdom’s army, or fighting them to the death instead of Byleth.

It eventually became clear that he had chosen to fight.

The scythe was pointed in Sylvain’s direction, so that it met with his lance. “Are you prepared to die?”

Quietly, Sylvain laughed. “No way. I’m not prepared to die. I’ve got too much to live for,” he muttered, tightening his grasp of his weapon with one hand, leaving the other one loose for if he needed to resort to using magic.

Mercedes took a deep breath, in an attempt to strengthen her own resolve. She had seen Byleth prepared to lay down her life already during this battle, and now she could see Sylvain doing the same even though his words said otherwise. They were doing that, even though they had a lot at stake. She could do the same… even if it meant losing her brother in the process. Silently, she pulled out the bow which she had with her, and narrowed her eyes as she saw the Death Knight preparing to attack.

“Forgive me, Emile…”

Within moments, their battle had started. Sylvain was taking the brunt of the Death Knight’s attacks, it being clear that he was doing his best to avoid attacking Mercedes. Despite that, he still fought back as best as he could. Ever since Byleth had told him of her fears about facing the Death Knight, he had done his best to prepare to fight in her place against him. There were some slight similarities between the way that the Death Knight had to fight using his weapon and the unusual way in which Dimitri would wield a lance – the future king had been a very useful sparring partner in the weeks leading up to this battle.

At one point, the Death Knight raised his scythe, and attempted to bring it down on Sylvain’s head. Mercedes had been able to push the weapon off its track by firing an arrow and hitting just below the blade. That diversion gave Sylvain the opportunity to catch the scythe with his lance, rendering both weapons temporarily useless. He then raised his arm ready to cast some magic, but found himself being attacked in another way.

The Death Knight’s fist went straight into his chest. Even though he was wearing his armour, the impact of the punch had _hurt._

Frustratedly, he sent a blast of fire in the Death Knight’s direction, before taking a few steps back. He had very quickly found a horrible metallic taste in his mouth. Then he felt warmth in the corner of his lips. He brought his hand up to his mouth, and winced at the sight of the blood.

“Mercedes-!” he shouted, having to stop after saying her name after finding himself needing to clear his throat. He ended up coughing up more blood. He was certain that the hit had somehow managed to break some of his ribs.

Fortunately, Mercedes noticed, and cast a quick healing spell to give him the opportunity to focus on avoiding the incoming attack in his direction.

Despite the pain in his chest, it seemed that the healing had been enough to stop the blood from building up in his throat and mouth. It allowed him to prepare to attack with his own lance in retaliation as the Death Knight’s attacks came at a relentless pace.

Many more minutes of fighting passed, neither side seeming to get an advantage. Sylvain had been able to damage the Death Knight’s armour thanks to his magic making enough heat to expose its vulnerabilities, as well as cause burns to his skin in these places. Meanwhile, the Death Knight had been able to land multiple attacks on Sylvain, mostly resulting in bruising and fractures. Mercedes had been using a combination of magic and her bow and arrows to keep Sylvain healed and the Death Knight from landing fatal attacks.

Aid eventually came to Sylvain and Mercedes’ side, in the form of a large shield intercepting one of the Death Knight’s attacks.

Mercedes shouted out in surprise when she realised who the owner of the shield was. “Dedue! What are you doing here?!”

The Death Knight backed up, clearly irritated at the extra presence. Despite this, he prepared to attack once more.

Dedue held onto an axe and his shield at Sylvain’s side, ready to participate in the battle when he answered her question. “His Highness sent me here. When the Professor was warped over to us, we knew that there was likely to be trouble dealing with the Death Knight.”

Sylvain nodded and Mercedes smiled slightly as the Death Knight came in to attack once more. The shield quickly intercepted again, but from behind, Sylvain lunged out to attack whilst the Death Knight was occupied with pulling his scythe back. From there, Sylvain's attacks turned relentless - he refused to hold anything back at this point after all that had happened until then.

“How is Byleth?!” he shouted, quickly pulling back when their opponent found the energy to parry his attacks.

“She is fine. Passed out after being warped, but we took her to Flayn who said that she was just tired. Your child is fine too. His Highness is taking her away from the battlefield as we speak.”

As Sylvain let out a small sigh of relief, it seemed that Dedue’s words - specifically those about their child - had caught the attention of the Death Knight. He had stopped his attacks, and seemed almost… hesitant?

Then it clicked. He may have wanted to fight Byleth to death, but he still had _some_ of a conscience. Not much of one, but still a little.

“Dedue! Sylvain! Knock him out, quickly!”

Sylvain nodded to Mercedes’ request, whereas Dedue gave her a confused look on why she wanted to knock him unconscious rather than kill him. Nonetheless, they moved quickly, and within seconds, the Death Knight was on the floor.

Mercedes then slowly walked over, knelt down, and removed his helmet. “Oh, Emile… I am so sorry that I had to leave you alone for such a long time…” she whispered, her hand moving to rest on his cheek. “Don’t worry… your big sister is here for you now… I won’t leave you alone again…”

Silently, Dedue went over to Mercedes to see if she was okay, as she had started to cry. He then turned to Sylvain, and nodded. “We can handle things from here. His Highness and Byleth should be to the east of here.”

Looking over at the unconscious Death Knight, and the two who were beside him, Sylvain let out a small sigh. In the end, things had worked out for the best. There was no doubt that the Death Knight, Jeritza, Emile, or whatever he went by would end up as a prisoner of the Kingdom and the Church. That meant that Mercedes would not have to deal with having to bury her brother, and that Byleth would no longer have to worry about encountering him as an opponent. She and their child would be safe.

Unfortunately, before he could move in the direction which Dedue had told him to go in, he took a deep breath and felt an intense pain in his side once more. That punch had done a lot more damage than he had originally thought…

* * *

* * *

It was evening by the time that Byleth woke up. She stretched out, and noticed that her surroundings were darkening, and that she seemed to be inside a tent. Even in her tired state, she quickly reached the realisation that it meant that she was no longer in Fort Merceus, and that the battle must have ended if things such as tents had been set up.

She yawned as she sat up, rubbing at her eyes as her vision adjusted to the little available light. It seemed as though she would be sharing the tent with another person – _she sincerely hoped it was Sylvain –_ based on the blankets to her side. In addition to that, some food and water had been left behind for her.

After taking a few minutes to wake herself up, she had the food and drink left behind whilst trying to figure out if anyone was nearby. She had heard talking outside, meaning that there was some sort of gathering happening. Carefully, she made her way out of the tent, and began to look around.

Not too far away in the distance was Fort Merceus, the banners of the Kingdom flying from it. She let out a small sigh – that meant that the battle had been victorious for their army.

Much closer, however, she saw a campfire set up, and many of her allies sat around it whilst talking, laughing, and eating. Annette was excitedly trying to make Felix eat a toasted marshmallow, and he was trying to bat her hand away. Ingrid was sat reading, with Dimitri peering over her shoulder with his good eye trying to read the book too. Ashe was with Dedue, and seemed to be talking about something. Flayn was asleep, her head resting on Seteth’s shoulder. Mercedes was notably absent.

Her eyes quickly met with Sylvain’s as he stood up to make his way over to her.

Byleth began to find herself crying as Sylvain slowly wrapped his arms around her. She had feared that she would lose him when he decided to battle the Death Knight in her place and had Mercedes send her away. She went to return the hug, but froze when she felt him flinch.

“Sorry, I’m a bit fragile right now,” he laughed awkwardly, before getting her to wrap her arms around his neck rather than his chest. “I took quite the beating when fighting the Death Knight.”

She looked up at him with worry in her eyes. “What happened…? How are you hurt?”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead to reassure her. “The main thing is quite a few broken ribs. Other than that, I’ve got some minor fractures in my left hand, and I have bruises everywhere. Can’t really see them in this light though, thankfully,” he explained, before taking a step back and showing her his bandaged hand. “Though it’s not exactly in the way that I’ve hoped, I’ve got direct orders from Dimitri to stay at Garreg Mach to heal once we’re sure that Fort Merceus is under our control, and I’m not allowed to fight until my ribs are healed…”

“So… I won’t be alone whilst the others are battling?” she asked, pulling one of her arms back so that she could wipe her tears. “Let’s hope you’re as good at strategy as you are at protecting me and our child then.”

“I can try,” he smiled, leaning down to press a kiss to her lips.

After spending a few minutes together, ignoring all of the other goings on, Sylvain then led her over to the campfire and sat down with her. Everyone showed some sort of relief that she was awake and with them once more, but Byleth’s mind began to dwell on a particular absence rather than responding to them.

“What happened with the Death Knight, Sylvain…? If you are alive, does that mean that he died? And what happened to Mercedes?”

He looked away briefly, and closed his eyes. “He lived. We managed to knock him out, and is in our army’s custody right now. Mercedes is with him at the moment.”

“Oh… I see. Does that mean he isn’t going to try to fight me to the death now?”

“We can only hope.”

They remained in silence after that, with Byleth leaning her head on his shoulder as she looked at the flames of the campfire. Sylvain took hold of her hand, and rested his head on hers.

Gradually, everyone began to make their way towards the tents that they were sleeping in that night. As the flames were dying, only the two of them remained behind.

“Sylvain…?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you for protecting me,” she whispered, her hands moving to rest on the small bump. Sylvain wrapped his arms around her, and did the same with his own hands. “I wasn’t happy about it at the time you had Mercedes send me away, but seeing what happened to you, I am glad that you made that decision. Had I remained behind… I don’t really want to think about what could have happened.”

Sylvain nodded. “I felt bad asking for Mercedes to do that too, but in the end, we were just doing as the three of us had agreed with Dimitri. If you ended up in danger, you had to be sent away from the battle.” His fingers lightly pressed into the skin of her belly, similar to when he had given her that back and shoulder massage two moons ago in Fhirdiad. “We were lucky though… Because you were sent to Dimitri, he sent Dedue to back us up. Had he not arrived; things could have wound up a lot worse than they had done.”

“That is reassuring…”

The flames finally died a few minutes later, a light gust of wind being enough to snuff out the last few embers. It was at that point that Sylvain yawned, and Byleth slowly stood up. She helped him up, before carefully taking hold of his injured hand. “We should retire for the night,” she whispered, giving him a small smile. “What do you say to trying to sleep in late tomorrow morning?”

“I’m completely down for that. I am exhausted…”


	14. Finalisation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _After Byleth and Dimitri had returned to Garreg Mach following on from their attempt at bringing the war to an end without bloodshed, Sylvain had noticed that Byleth had a distant look in her eyes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did my best to cram a good part of the last two chapters of the Blue Lions route into one chapter, with the obvious canon diversions which have been established up to this point! After this, things should be getting a lot happier!

Byleth couldn’t help but feel apprehensive as she stood by Dimitri’s side, opposite them being those who held their matching roles from their opponents. Hubert, her equal – the strategists and advisors of the Kingdom of Faerghus and the Adrestian Empire, respectively. Edelgard, Dimitri’s equivalent, though their titles had different names. Soon-to-be King and Emperor. The only thing which they had in common aside from position was that they were step-siblings.

She did her best to listen in to the conversation in which the two leaders were having. It had started of as a civilised discussion about the war, and reasons for it. Then it had turned to slight spats – Edelgard claiming that Dimitri could never understand the reason behind her provocation, and Dimitri retaliating with the truth that she had made even more people suffer because of the war.

One of Byleth’s main concerns is that this ‘conversation’ could end up turning into a fight, and she could clearly see that Hubert had been carefully monitoring every little movement of her and the King. There was no doubt that he had figured out that she was pregnant – she had been concealing the growing bump with her coat and had kept her arms firmly across her front the entire time. He was calculating and callous, and would likely have no hesitation in attacking her no matter her state.

“I have reason to believe that you are also resorting to underhanded tactics too, Dimitri,” Edelgard eventually stated, her eyes narrowing as she looked between the pair. “I heard of your capture of the Death Knight. I would have expected him, if not to have defeated your nonsensical crusade, to have fallen. But no, he is alive. Are you expecting his loyalty to the Empire to assist in furthering your madness? Blackmail, torture?”

“He is our prisoner, yes, but we have no intention of using him against you,” Byleth eventually intervened. “He is the sibling of one of our own, and those who fought against him on the battlefield deemed it possible to prevent further loss and grief by taking him in.”

“And what of the others who lost family during the bloodshed at Fort Merceus? Houses Hevring and Bergliez both lost sons that day. What comes of that? Why was the Death Knight offered such mercy, but not Linhardt and Caspar? Tell me, Professor.”

Now Dimitri cut back in, seeing the anger which was being directed towards Byleth. “The Professor played no role in deciding who lived and who died. She was not present on the battlefield for a vast majority of the battle. I was leading the battle, and their deaths are on my shoulders. I have no doubt that had the Professor been present, she would have spared them also,” he stated, his voice sounding calm but his eye showing an anger that Byleth had not seen in many moons. Fortunately, the anger was not towards himself this time.

“Lady Edelgard, I believe that we are getting nowhere in this conversation.”

“I must agree, Hubert. It is clear that an understanding shall not be reached here…” Edelgard stated, her face straightening. “I shall await you in Enbarr. The next time that we meet…”

“This senseless war will come to an end,” Dimitri stated, finishing Edelgard’s sentence. Byleth closed her eyes, knowing that even if the Kingdom were to win, she would not be there to witness it. “But before you leave, Edelgard… There is something that I must give you.”

From then, Byleth did not pay attention to the conversation which occurred as Dimitri handed Edelgard the dagger which she had dropped more than five years previously. It was only when she found herself being addressed that she began to listen once more.

“Professor. It is a shame that we will have to oppose one another in Enbarr,” Edelgard said, sorrow laced in her voice. “Of anyone, it is you that I have the most sadness to stand against.”

Byleth clenched her fists, and shook her head. “We will not meet in Enbarr. You will be facing Dimitri – not me.”

“Because you are with child, I presume?” Hubert finally came out with what she was aware he had figured out. “The posture, your manners, your clothing, the lack of your sword… It is all so blatantly obvious.” She remained silent at his words, and turned her back to walk away. “What gives you the right to create new life, when all you do in this war is take?”

The words cut deep, though she did her best not to react as though it had. Hubert could say that, but he didn’t know the circumstances. He didn’t know that she and Sylvain had no intention of conceiving, but it had happened on a day where so much had happened afterwards that they had forgotten to take precautions.

Instead, she focussed on what he said about taking lives. “You have taken just as many lives as I have, possibly even more,” she finally said, taking a deep breath. “Dimitri – we must leave now. We have a battle to prepare for.”

* * *

* * *

After Byleth and Dimitri had returned to Garreg Mach following on from their attempt at bringing the war to an end without bloodshed, Sylvain had noticed that Byleth had a distant look in her eyes. It was only at certain times, however – mostly when the upcoming battles were being discussed.

It didn’t take long for him to realise that something must have happened to make her act in such a way. She wanted to play a part in these final battles, that had been obvious since the initial discussions about withdrawing her from battle, but it seemed that there was something in particular which she was wanting to do.

Even when the rest of the army assembled by the gates of Garreg Mach, and the two of them had smiled and laughed alongside their allies, telling them that they better had return alive, he could still see that look. The same with when they stood by the gates holding hands, watching as the army disappeared into the horizon.

It was at this point Sylvain chose to mention it.

“I can already tell… You’re feeling useless hanging back here, aren’t you…?” he asked, using his free hand to hold against his chest where his ribs were healing. “We should be with them all… We should be joining in these battles.”

Byleth glanced at him, then gave him a small nod. “I want to be there at the moment that Edelgard is cut down… I want to be there when we win,” she stated, her eyes now focussing on the ground. “I want to be there when we can finally put our weapons down, and begin to look forward to the future.”

Sylvain was in complete agreement. He too wanted to be taking part in the battle for those exact same reasons. Were it not for the injuries sustained in his battle against the Death Knight, he could have been there.

Once there was nobody left in sight, Byleth took a deep breath and tightened her grasp of his hand. “Get the Lance of Ruin. Meet me by the stables with your horse this evening.”

He had to take a moment to process her words. It was almost as though she was wanting them to prepare to battle!

_She was wanting them to prepare to battle._

“Byleth… Are you-?”

“We may arrive a little late, but we should be able to help out.”

“Right.”

She then smiled at him as she released her hold of his hand. “We should be able to tell our child that we played a part in ending the war which was tearing Fódlan into pieces, not that we waited around for our friends to do it for us.”

Sylvain couldn’t agree more.

* * *

* * *

It had turned out that whilst Sylvain had retrieved their weapons, Byleth had gone to speak to the Death- to _Jeritza_ from where he was currently imprisoned in Garreg Mach. She was aware that he had used many shortcuts to escape from battles or to arrive in battlefields in the past, so she knew that he would likely be aware of any shortcuts to Enbarr. He had complied with her request, as he had no reason to lie – the war was to be ended soon, and his fate would be decided based upon the circumstances of that.

All in all, things had worked out for them as they made their way to the Imperial capital. They had encountered some trouble in the form of a group of soldiers from the Empire who had been drifting following the fall of Fort Merceus, and Sylvain being recognised from that battle. The pair won in that fight, though it had added extra time to their journey.

“You know what I’m looking forward to when this war has been dealt with?” Byleth asked when they were approximately three hours away from their destination. Already they had encountered people who had fled Enbarr, so they knew that their allies were already in combat.

Sylvain raised an eyebrow as he looked at her sitting on his horse as he walked to the side. “Go on, I’d like to know,” he smiled at her. It was nice to hear her talking about things she was excited for, rather than just the war.

“A massage. Like the one you gave me for my shoulders in Fhirdiad… My body is getting very achy with this pregnancy, and it’s only about… thirteen, fourteen-ish weeks?” she explained, followed by a sigh. He was fine with what she was asking for, and was completely aware of the aches – it was why she was currently on his horse rather than him. “Also, I was told that in a few weeks, we should be able to find out if we are having a son or a daughter… I really want to know.”

He nodded along as he slowed down his pace and reached over to the reins of his horse to slow it down. His chest was twinging again where his ribs were broken following on from the earlier battle. Whenever that would happen, Byleth would use some of the healing magic she knew to ease the pain, so she carefully got off the horse and brought her hand to his ribs to do just that.

As she cast her magic, she closed her eyes. “There’s more than just wanting the war to end behind me wanting to participate in the battle,” she confessed, her tone of voice sounding dark. “I normally feel regret killing those who were students in the Officer’s Academy alongside you, but there is one who I… would like to have out of the picture by the time that we win this war.”

Sylvain knew that many of the former students had already fallen. He had walked past the corpses of a few in the aftermath of battles… But based on the current goings on, he could only recall of four who had not either passed on, allied themselves with the Kingdom, or left Fódlan entirely in the case of one.

Edelgard, Hubert, Dorothea, and Petra.

Of the four of them, there was only one who he could believe would have rubbed Byleth the wrong way.

_Hubert._

“Did something happen when you and Dimitri attempted peace talks?”

Byleth nodded slowly as she finished casting her magic, and the pain in his side had faded away for now. “Yes… Hubert quickly figured out that I was pregnant,” she began, her fists clenching as he took hold of her hands to keep her calm. “He then asked when it had been established that we would have to fight for peace whether ‘I had the right to give life when all I did in the war is take’… I… I felt so angry at those words. The only time that I can compare it to is the day that I received the goddess’ powers, when seeking revenge for my father’s death… Not even when Dimitri was letting his past control him, and the army’s actions did I feel that sort of anger.”

He silently listened to Byleth venting to him, before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “Don’t let it get to you, ‘leth… He was probably betting on you getting annoyed about it, knowing Hubert. He knows how important you are to the Kingdom and Church, and if you had retaliated against him, he would have an excuse to hurt you or worse.”

“Yes, you’re probably right,” she nodded, taking a step back to return to the horse. “Maybe by now, he has already been taken out by one of our friends, so I don’t have to worry about him when we reach Enbarr…”

“Let’s hope so.”

* * *

* * *

Despite there being clear signs that a battle had taken place in Enbarr, what surprised Byleth and Sylvain upon their arrival was that a majority of the city was still intact. It was only buildings and architecture between the main gates and the Imperial Palace which had sustained damage.

“It seems that Dimitri and Seteth followed the plans almost too meticulously… I expected much more harm to the city than this,” Byleth stated as she walked forward, towards a central plaza equidistant from the gates to the palace. “And have you noticed…? There’s almost no Kingdom or Church forces amongst the fallen. That means one of two things… The majority of Empire forces were wiped out at Fort Merceus, or they are in there.” She pointed towards the palace, but her eyes cast over the bodies of the fallen enemies. Amongst them was a man in mostly black, and she let out a small sigh. His words could no longer plague her mind.

Moments after, the pair flinched at the sound of glass shattering from the palace. In the central area of the building, presumably where the throne room was, an enormous window had been destroyed. Colourful glass was cascading down both inside the palace and onto the streets below.

* * *

* * *

The situation inside Enbarr’s imperial palace was looking dire for both sides of the battle. The Adrestian Empire was now down to their final few soldiers, but Edelgard was still alive. In the form of a hideous creature which seemed half-human, half-demonic beast, but still very much alive. The Kingdom and Church had many of their fighters withdraw or fall at the final hurdle, but the key members of the army were still going strong, but were growing weary.

Dimitri and Seteth had taken it upon themselves to be the ones who took on Edelgard – Dimitri out of obligation and to appease the ghosts of his loved ones, Seteth to uncover what exactly had happened to Rhea and to locate the missing Archbishop.

They had been able to hold out for a while, with their allies stepping in to contribute wherever possible. What was clear though, is that even with their allies, they would struggle to bring the creature which was the Adrestian Emperor down. They braced themselves for the likelihood of life-changing injuries for if they were to be successful.

Everything went downhill when Seteth was knocked off his wyvern, and sent crashing to the ground near to the doors of the throne room. That left Dimitri on his own, with nothing but Areadbhar and his crest to hold out with during the battle.

Attack after attack he put up with, his body screaming at him to stop fighting but his heart, his mind, and the dead telling him to keep going.

Eventually, his body had won over, and he fell down to his knees after one particularly forceful attack. He attempted to pull himself up using his lance as support, but found himself unable to move.

He felt as though this was the end – the Empire had won the war to control Fódlan. Edelgard was preparing to attack once more, and that would be the end of him.

“ _No… You are here…!_ ” A distorted version of Edelgard’s voice cried out in what sounded like horror, before suddenly, a familiar attack extended out from near to where Seteth lay unconscious. “ _Professor-!”_

Hearing Edelgard’s words made Dimitri’s eyes divert towards the doors, and his eye widened at the sight of Byleth, the Sword of the Creator in her hands as she made her way towards the front of the room. Just the sight of her – even though she wasn’t even meant to be anywhere near Enbarr – had been enough encouragement for him to pull himself up to his feet.

“Sorry for disobeying orders, Dimitri… Sylvain and I felt useless remaining at Garreg Mach, so we had to come and help,” she explained when she reached his side, and prepared to continue the battle. “He is with the others, helping with the last few stragglers.”

“I… No, don’t apologise. I understand,” he nodded as he got into position to attack. “Let us win this war together, Professor.”


	15. New beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The war had been won._   
>  _Edelgard was dead, the Adrestian Empire no more._   
>  _The missing Archbishop Rhea had been found in the depths of the Imperial Palace, giving the joint Kingdom and Church army even more reason to celebrate._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Time for More Big News™ ft. Rhea!~~
> 
> This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous one, so I decided to do another update today!
> 
> Also, another background ship emerges!

The war had been won.

Edelgard was dead, the Adrestian Empire no more.

The missing Archbishop Rhea had been found in the depths of the Imperial Palace, giving the joint Kingdom and Church army even more reason to celebrate.

When they all had returned to Garreg Mach, and celebrations were in full swing, Byleth found herself being summoned to the Archbishop’s quarters, where Rhea was meant to be resting. When she reached the room, she saw Seteth waiting outside with his arm bandaged up – fortunately, his injuries from the demonic version of Edelgard had not been as bad as first thought.

“Good evening, Byleth. Lady Rhea has been very insistent about talking to you since her wounds have been tended to,” he explained, before smiling. “If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask for me, I’ll be just outside.”

She nodded as she went into the room. It was then that she noticed Rhea sat at a small table with two drinks of tea set out. The Archbishop looked drained of energy, but fought that back when she saw Byleth. She gestured for Byleth to join her at the table.

“I have heard that you have been liking sugary food and drinks as of late, so your drink may be rather sweet. Is that fine with you, dear child?” Rhea explained as Byleth sat down, receiving a small smile in response.

“I have, yes… Thank you,” Byleth said, reaching for the cup in front of her and taking a small sip. “It’s lovely.” She took another sip, then placed her cup down. Rhea seemed very relieved that Byleth liked the drink. “Is there a reason why you want to speak to me and for this tea, Lady Rhea?”

“Please, I have said before… In these walls, you may call me Rhea. There is no need for titles. To answer your question though… Yes, there is a reason why I have called you here.” Rhea reached for her own drink, and took a long, slow sip before closing her eyes. “I have had a discussion with the future king of Fódlan regarding the presence of the Church of Seiros now that the country shall be led under one banner. I am in no state to continue as Archbishop following on from my detainment. In truth, I may never fully recover from it. However, we know that the Church shall be needed now more than ever to heal the hearts of those who have been impacted by the war.”

Byleth listened carefully to each word which Rhea said, acknowledging each point that she made. She agreed with everything that she had heard, but what was not as clear was the point which was trying to be made aside from the Church being essential to Fódlan’s recovery.

“Dear child, we believe that you are ready to take on the role of Archbishop. You have the Goddess Sothis’ powers, and you inspire people to listen and to follow. You displayed it as a Professor, and have displayed it as a leader in the war against that wicked Edelgard. This is simply the next step.”

All that Byleth could do in reaction to what Rhea had said was close her eyes as she took a sip of her tea. Both Rhea and Dimitri wanted her to be Archbishop of the Church of Seiros? She had no clue whether she could take on such a role – she wasn’t even aware of the Church until she became a Professor!

“Remember, you shall have the support of many wonderful people as you lead. You will not be alone. Dimitri, Seteth, Flayn… They shall always be there for you,” Rhea smiled, before peering around the room. “You may not have realised it, but since you returned to this world, you have been acting Archbishop anyway. You already know what is needed of you, all that is required now is for it to be made official. It does not have to be right away, though it may be best for it to happen before your child enters this world.”

“So… What you are saying is… You want me to be Archbishop, and I have little over five moons in which to officially take on the role?”

Rhea nodded, then reached for her drink to finish it. “Yes. However, you shall be able to receive the privileges of holding the role as soon as tonight. This room is now yours. I know that you may have an attachment to the room in which you are currently residing in, as it was once Jeralt’s room, but this is yours now. Should you wish it, your lover from House Gautier may reside here also.”

After that, Rhea rose to her feet and let out a small sigh. “I wish you well for the future, Byleth. Perhaps it is Lady Byleth I should be addressing you by. Please do keep in contact once I relocate to Zanado – I would appreciate knowing that you and your child make it through this pregnancy safely.”

From then, Byleth found herself in a stunned silence when she was left alone in the room.

_She… She had been told that she is the Archbishop, just like that? No advance warning? She knew that she would eventually hold the role, but not this soon…_

After a few minutes of attempting to process the news, she picked up what was left of her tea and quickly downed it. She had no idea on what to do… She would have to tell Sylvain, obviously. And she would want to go to visit her parents’ grave to let them know… The same with all of her former students. But how could she-

_Seteth. Seteth said that he would be waiting outside for if she needed anything._

She got up to her feet as quickly as she could and made her way over to the door. When she threw it open, she could just about see Seteth sat out on the terrace with a book in his hands. She made her way over to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He was caught by surprise by her presence, but closed his book and turned to look at her.

“Byleth… Is everything okay? You look panicked.”

“Did… Did you know about what Rhea was going to ask me then?”

Her question clearly puzzled him, as his brow furrowed, and he shook his head. “I knew that she wanted to talk over tea, but not ask you something.”

“She has asked me to be- No, she _told me_ that I am the Archbishop now. That… it just needs to be made official before my child is born…” It seemed that this was news to Seteth, as his eyes widened, and the colour drained from his face. “I- I don’t know how to process it, but I know that I need Sylvain here. C-Could you get him for me…? My legs, they feel all weak…” She laughed in a panic, followed by her turning towards the terrace entrance. “I- I am going to sit down in there again…”

Seteth nodded. “Let… Let me help you to a seat, then I will go and find Sylvain for you…”

“Thank you…”

* * *

* * *

“I’m not even kidding, Felix. If you can’t give me a serious answer, I’m going to get Dimitri or Ingrid’s input on this.”

“Sylvain, in what world am _I_ the right person to talk about engagement rings to?!”

“You’re my friend! Can I not ask for your input? And besides, all I’m asking is which one you think is nicer for me to give to Byleth! The silver band with the emerald, or the golden one with a sapphire?!” Sylvain complained, showing his friend the two rings which he had in his hands. They were sat in the former Blue Lions classroom as an escape from some of the celebrations, but Felix was on the verge of hunting for somewhere quieter to exist.

Seeing the pleading look in his childhood friend’s eyes, he groaned loudly and closed his eyes. “Damn it, Sylvain! You’re the one who has been dating her! Other than her dead father, you’re probably the person who knows her and what she likes the best, so I can’t answer which of those rings she’ll like the most!”

Sylvain frowned, before sitting down on one of the creaky old desks and looking between the two rings. He felt that Byleth would like them both… One of them reminded him of what her hair and eyes looked like before she took the Goddess’ power, but the other reminded him of her current appearance…

Eventually, it seemed like Felix had enough of the indecisiveness. He walked over to Sylvain, and snatched the gold ring out of his hand. “There. I’ve chosen for you. Give her that one, and I’ll keep hold of this one to give to Annie- Oh crap.”

For a moment, Sylvain felt offended that he had taken away one of the rings, before his eyes widened at the slip of the tongue. “Wait… You and _Annette?_ And you are going to propose? Damn, Felix! Good on you!”

“S-So what?!”

“It’s actually pretty sweet, y’know. Annette Fantine Fraldarius, huh?”

Seeing the furious blush across Felix’s face made it extremely hard for Sylvain not to hold back laughter. He had never seen Felix so flustered, but it was nice knowing that his friend had somebody to be with.

“W-Well, you’re planning on making the Professor ‘Byleth Gautier’! How is that any different?!”

“Because you’ve kept this a secret!”

Before the pair could bicker any further, they were cut off by somebody appearing in the doorway. They both noticed that it was Seteth, so they exchanged a conversation in quick facial expressions before he could approach them.

‘ _We’re continuing this later, Felix.’_

_‘Leave it, idiot.’_

_‘Nope. Not gonna.’_

By that point, Seteth had reached them, and had his arms folded in concern.

“I apologise for disturbing this conversation, but Sylvain, Byleth is requesting your presence at the Archbishop’s quarters. She is… in quite the state of shock, but is asking for you.”

“What’s happened? Last time she was in shock and I was asked for, it turned out that she was pregnant…”

Seteth bit his lip, debating on whether he should be the one to pass on the news or not, but decided that it would be best to tell due to the sheer amount worry which Sylvain was displaying. “Lady Rhea has stepped down from her role, and has told Byleth that she is the new Archbishop.”

Before anything further could be said, the thought of rings, proposals, and engagements had gone from Sylvain’s mind. All that he could think about was how people had a tendency to give Byleth bombshell announcements when he wasn’t there to support her!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt it absolutely necessary to have a dig at my plot planning skills at the end, sorry Sylvain!


	16. Surprises, and lack of

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot happens on a day in the middle of the Wyvern Moon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment for this, so have another update! There's only four more chapters to go after this, however!!!

Byleth ran a hand through her hair as she looked at her list of what needed to be done. Now that the war was over, and a few of her former students were preparing to return home, there was a lot that she was needing to do and there was little time in which to do it. Seteth had been kind, and the night before they had written up a list on what she needed to do.

  1. _Settle on a date for the official Archbishop ascension ceremony (Must be before late Pegasus Moon 1185 – Baby’s due date)_
  2. _Discuss with Dimitri about continued correspondence between Garreg Mach and Fhirdiad_
  3. _Visit Mercedes for health check (should find out whether son or daughter)_



She did, however, notice that something extra in handwriting which wasn’t her own had been added between the second and third points.

_Go to the Goddess Tower to talk to Sylvain! It is VERY IMPORTANT!!!_

Seeing Sylvain’s addition to the list, as well as his emphasis about its importance (he had gone over the all capital letters a few times, had drawn circles around the word, and had excessive exclamation points) did bring out a laugh, so she decided that she would oblige the _very important_ task.

* * *

* * *

“The first day of the Ethereal Moon,” Byleth stated as entered the Audience Chamber, with the one she was coming to speak to getting caught by surprise at her sudden appearance. She had to hold back a laugh at the shock on Dimitri’s face as she made her way to the front of the room.

Then she hesitated.

_That was where Rhea would stand..._

She was informally the Archbishop now, but even then, she felt it improper to stand in that place. She was used to being where Dimitri was stood, speaking _to_ the Archbishop, not speaking _as._

It took her a few moments before she could take those final few steps forward, and took her place at the front of the room.

“I... will officially take on the title of Archbishop on the first day of the Ethereal Moon,” she stated, her hands slowly coming to rest on her growing baby bump. “That gives about six weeks to prepare... Goddess, it’s already half-way through the Wyvern Moon...”

Dimitri nodded at her words, before smiling at her. “Are you still concerned about taking on the role, Professor? If there is a way in which I can ease your doubts, I will do my best to assist. I owe it to you, after you pulled me away from my doubts and my suicidal path that I was leading you all down...”

She gave him a small smile as she shook her head. “The thought is appreciated, Dimitri... I do have my worries, but I have reason to believe that they are much bigger in my head than they actually are, and my stress about this little one is likely also contributing,” she smiled, before laughing quietly. “Every night, Sylvain tells them to stop being a little nuisance, but they keep kicking...”

Dimitri chuckled at her words, and nodded. “If you say so. So long as you tell someone when you feel that you cannot cope...” He watched for a moment after he spoke at the affection which she was giving to the unborn child, in the form of rubbing her fingers over her belly through the dress that she was wearing. “Are you still talking to Mercedes often about yours and your child’s health?”

“Yes... I'm going to be finding Sylvain after this meeting before going to talk to her, actually. She believes that she should be able to tell us if we are having a son or daughter today...” Byleth then closed her eyes, and lowered her head. “We have already had a talk about names... And Sylvain almost made me cry. He said that as the little one only has me on my side, that my parents should be honoured in their names. So... if we have a son, his middle name will be Jeralt, and if we have a daughter, her middle name will be Sitri...”

“I am rather surprised at how well Sylvain is handling this entire situation. He has gone from a skirt-chaser to a man who would do anything for his family. His devotion is something to be admired, even. I can only hope to extend Ingrid the same courtesy...”

Byleth opened her eyes again, and could feel the corners of her lips turning even more upward than they had been. Since the war had ended, her former students had all been so happy and filled with love.

Dedue and Mercedes were now officially a couple, and though they were often busy, they would always find time for each other. There were rumours that they were making plans to move to Duscur to establish a school once the post-war healing had truly begun. There had even been discussions regarding Jeritza being taken with them, though there would obviously be conditions put in place for that.

Ashe had said that he wasn’t looking for love at present, but was instead focussing on restoring House Gaspard and caring for his young siblings. He had even brought them to Garreg Mach for a short while, and they were the sweetest children she had ever met. They were lucky to have such a caring big brother.

The most surprising thing to have happened, in Byleth’s opinion, was catching Felix and Annette in the greenhouse sharing a kiss. She had heard singing when spending time at the fishing pond, and was curious when it had suddenly stopped. When investigating, she saw the pair together and upon realising that she had seen them, Felix had hidden his face in embarrassment whilst Annette took hold of his hands and reassured him that it was fine for her to know.

She had also noticed ever since Fort Merceus that there was something going on between Dimitri and Ingrid. The way in which he would peer over her shoulder to read her book hadn’t been missed, and nor had the embrace which they had after Edelgard’s defeat. Dimitri had been very open in Ingrid’s presence and would talk often about their relationship. Ingrid had been much more relaxed too – Count Galatea was no longer breathing down her neck about marriage, for she was set to marry into royalty _and_ achieve her goal of becoming a knight in one fell swoop.

Byleth felt it to be lovely that things were finally settling down and there was finally a chance for things to become peaceful. Despite all these revelations, people still made a fuss about hers and Sylvain’s relationship. They were the first of the former Blue Lions to get together, and also the only ones expecting a child. As Annette had so aptly put it, their child would be a sign of peace. One of the first born after the war, to the new Archbishop and Kingdom nobility who were helping to usher in a new era of calm in Fódlan.

“We seem to be getting off-track, Professor... We were supposed to be talking about communications between here and Fhirdiad once I must return to the capital.”

“Oh, yes... Let’s go into the room over there,” Byleth nodded, pointing over to the room on her right. “There’s seats in there, and my body aches to no end at present.”

* * *

* * *

Sylvain was leaning against an opening in the wall at the Goddess Tower, looking down at the expanses of Garreg Mach. At first, he had been used to the idea of taking Byleth back with him to Gautier lands for them to settle down for the remainder of her pregnancy, as it had been said that Rhea would resume her duties as Archbishop for a time. Now, however, he was having to adjust that mindset. They would be living in both the monastery _and_ Gautier lands, more often than not the monastery whilst his father still holds the role of Margrave and Byleth’s new role likely requiring her here for now.

Of course, Byleth taking the role of Archbishop impacted on him in more ways than just living at Garreg Mach for much longer. Seteth had spoken to him after the news had sunken in. Though Seteth would remain an advisor with regard to the Church's public presence, she would also need an advisor for the more in-depth issues and the inevitable changes to the Church's structure and ways of working. And Seteth had told him that there would be nobody better for the role than him.

Anyone with a keen eye could tell that Sylvain was much smarter than he made himself out to be. Seteth (and Byleth) had picked this up in his academy days. He hadn’t used magic at all before that point, yet in less than two weeks, he was more than competent with it. All he had done was quickly skim through a textbook and he had picked it up. Even if his examinations and assignments were often at a barely passing grade, his displays of what he had learned was on par with the most studious of Byleth’s pupils.

It didn’t surprise him that Seteth had asked him to act as an advisor. The only thing which surprised him was that Seteth knew about how he did his best to conceal that he was capable as a student.

He knew that he was prepared to help Byleth in any way possible. He was never going to let her go through anything alone, whether it be the pregnancy, her new role, or even the rest of their lives.

So... He was finally going to propose to her.

After his conversation with Felix a few weeks earlier, the thought of asking for her hand in marriage had completely slipped his mind. All that he focussed on was being there for Byleth and doing little things to make her hectic life easier on her, such as having her favourite tea made for when she returned to their fancy new room, or giving her one of those massages she liked so much when she woke up in the morning or just before she went to sleep.

He only remembered the night before that he had the ring which he intended to give to her. He had found it when organising some of their belongings which had been in a mess since they moved to the Archbishop’s quarters. After that, he had gone over to her to-do list for that day and added in that he needed her to meet him there.

With a deep breath, he pulled the ring out once more and turned his back to the views of outside. He didn’t want to accidentally drop it down the mountains that the monastery rested atop – he had almost lost Byleth that way, there was almost no chance of getting the ring back. It didn’t help that his hands were trembling either. This was a _huge_ thing, to be proposing to Byleth. He didn’t want to mess it up.

His palms were sweaty when he finally heard footsteps going up the stairs, so in a panic, he put the ring back into his pocket and ran a hand through his hair a few times so that he looked a bit more presentable than his anxiety had made him.

“Very suave. I think I prefer the ‘hair stuck to sweaty brow' look though, Sylv,” Byleth said as she reached the top of the stairs, laughing quietly at having caught the last few moments of his previous action. “Then again...” she walked over to him, and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “You look good no matter what.”

He chuckled at her words as he kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her to pull her as close as their baby would allow. “Hello to you too,” he grinned, taking a small step back to rest his hands on her stomach. “How are things going today?”

“Hmm, okay, I suppose. I know when I'm going to officially receive the title of Archbishop, and Dimitri is setting up a system for us to keep in contact when he’s off doing all of his kingly duties in Fhirdiad,” Byleth stated, with hints of worry present in her otherwise calm voice.

“Oh, when will you be getting the title? I'll probably end up involved in organising any ceremonies...”

“In a little over six weeks, on the first of the Ethereal Moon...”

Sylvain thought on what she said, then made an affirmative noise. “Sounds good. No doubt it’s going to be very busy in the lead up to it. Such a shame, it will probably mean that I'll have to step up my efforts to help you relax.” The sarcasm in his voice at it being a shame made Byleth quietly giggle.

“How tragic, I will end up with more massages from my darling, and not to mention get extra hugs in bed at night... I may even need some special treatment,” she whispered, moving one of her hands to near the top of his leg, inducing a surprised yet aroused noise from him. He knew what she was getting at, but he had to hold back any urge to fulfil what she was asking for there and then – he still had something important to do, and Mercedes was expecting at least her at any time soon.

“So... I can imagine that you are wondering why I asked for you to meet me here, aren’t you?” he eventually asked, his thundering heartbeat finally calming down as he moved his fingers from her stomach to her hands. She nodded, and he took a deep breath. “Well... There are three reasons. One is that I didn’t want you doing everything on your to-do list without a moment to relax in-between.”

Byleth smiled at him, and kissed at his cheek. She found it sweet that he was looking out for her like this.

“Another reason is that I wanted to be there when you go to Mercedes. I wasn’t there when I found out that you were pregnant, I at least want to be present to find out if we are having a son or a daughter...” He then trailed off, and bit his lip as he tightened his grasp of her hands.

“And what of the third reason?”

“The third... I...” He took another deep breath as he released his hold of one of his hands, and took hold of the ring that he had stashed into his pocket. “Byleth... I just want to say... You make me really happy. The happiest guy alive,” he whispered, very quickly panicking and already straying from the mental script he had been through multiple times that day. “I... I want you...”

“Sylvain, breathe, okay? I'm listening. Take your time...”

He nodded at her reassuring words, then breathed in again. “Byleth Eisner... I love you. And I... I want you to be my wife.” He then presented the ring, and watched as her eyes widened.

Then, she laughed quietly. “I knew it. I knew that this is what you were planning...” She then pulled something out from around her neck, and showed him what it was. He recognised it as one of her few family heirlooms, her mother’s ring. “I brought this ring with me too.”

“So, does that mean that...?”

“Yes, Sylvain. I'll marry you,” she smiled, pressing a kiss to his lips as he let out a small sob of relief. “I, uh... Must confess, I have no idea if my ring will fit your finger, but-"

“I don’t care if it fits or not, all that I care about is that we’re finally engaged...” he muttered, taking hold of her hand to put the ring on her finger, followed by taking of hers. As she had expected, her ring was a bit small for his fingers, so she offered him the chain which it had been on around her neck.

The next few minutes were spent with them both whispering how much they loved each other, and sharing many little kisses and hugs.

Eventually, Byleth took a step back, and held her hand out. “Well... I think it’s time that we focus on the other member of our family, don’t you? I doubt that Mercedes will be waiting around much longer for us...”

* * *

* * *

“Hmm...” Mercedes finished casting a spell, and brought her hand up to her chin deep in thought.

“Is... something wrong, Mercedes?” Sylvain asked, his face laced with concern as the healer was being awfully quiet. “If there’s something wrong-!”

“Shush, Sylvain! Nothing is wrong, I'm just confused at what my magic is detecting...” she muttered, before frowning and stepping over to Byleth again. “Professor, I need you to relax again... Just close your eyes as though you are about to go to sleep. You’ll feel a slight ticklish feeling from the magic again, but please pay it no mind. Maybe you should loosen your grasp of her hand too, Sylvain.”

Sylvain sighed, but did as Mercedes asked as she held her hand out once more to cast the spell again. The room remained silent for about thirty seconds, which is when Mercedes lowered her hand again before turning around to pick up a book to check something.

At this point, Byleth joined Sylvain in looked puzzled at what was going on.

“I could hear two heartbeats, which was confusing me, as I shouldn’t be able to pick up the mother’s heartbeat,” Mercedes began. Byleth had the urge to inform Mercedes that she didn’t even possess a heartbeat, but decided that would be a bad idea as no doubt that unless Sylvain had discreetly read her father’s diary, he would end up panicking even more than he currently was.

But then she tensed up.

_Two heartbeats?_

“What confused me more, is that the spell was going between saying that you are having a son, and having a daughter...”

By this point, Byleth could feel Sylvain crushing her hand.

“That, alongside the fact that your stomach seems a bit larger than it should for this point in a pregnancy, Professor... I believe that you will be having twins. A son, and a daughter.”

The room fell silent. Neither one if the newly engaged couple knew how to react to that news. They had both felt that with enough preparation, they would be ready for one child. But _two_?

Byleth broke the silence as she felt tears slipping down her face.

“How... How certain are you...?”

“Almost one hundred percent. There is some inaccuracy with these sorts of spells, but there are too many factors which indicate twins,” Mercedes stated, an excited smile on her face. “Congratulations, both of you.”


	17. Busy day, relaxing night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _They had spoken about it after they announced their engagement and that they were expecting two children, not one, and had decided that there was no better time than that day. That morning, in a much smaller and private ceremony in the cathedral, they were going to get married._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cue the wedding day and the eventual wedding night fluff and smut! ~~featuring Claude at the wedding because I am terrible at not including Claude in fics~~

“You, Byleth,” Sylvain whispered as he embraced his fiancée from behind, pressing kisses to her neck as he gently rubbed his fingers on her stomach, “look beautiful. I almost feel jealous that I have to share you with the Church.”

Quietly, Byleth laughed at his words as she moved her hands to lace her fingers between his. It was the day where she was officially taking on the role of Archbishop, with a large ceremony open to the public in Garreg Mach’s cathedral set to happen that afternoon.

However, that was not the only big event happening that day.

They had spoken about it after they announced their engagement and that they were expecting two children, not one, and had decided that there was no better time than that day. That morning, in a much smaller and private ceremony in the cathedral, they were going to get married.

Already they had shocked people by doing away with typical wedding traditions. Just the mere fact that they were currently in the same room, in the hour leading up to the wedding, had shocked some of their friends. In Jeralt's absence, Dimitri had been asked to walk Byleth down the aisle (Sylvain’s father had offered to do it, but Dimitri had already been asked at that point). There wasn’t to be a reception of sorts either, or a honeymoon, as they had a lot on their plates that needed dealing with, namely preparing a suitable environment for raising twins.

“Anyway, uh... How are you feeling? I’m feeling anxious enough about getting married, I can’t even begin thinking about what it’s like at six months pregnant with twins, about to get married into nobility, _and_ taking on the biggest role in the entirety of Fódlan outside of royalty...” Sylvain whispered into her hair, before looking at them both through the mirror that they were stood before.

Byleth smiled and closed her eyes. “I... I'm honestly not feeling as anxious as I could be. Now, if we had listened to what we were told to do and stayed apart as of last night, I would probably be losing my mind about now,” she explained, her body relaxing into his touch. “I am least worried about the wedding because I'll be marrying you... I’m much more worried about the afternoon and becoming Archbishop. Mostly because anyone can be there, not just our friends and associates...”

The pair remained holding onto each other for a few minutes after that, with Sylvain using her to soothe his nerves, and Byleth liking the warmth which his body was giving off. It was only when there was a knock at the door that they realised it was almost time – no doubt it was Dimitri outside the door, ready to keep Byleth company until it was time for the first ceremony of the day.

Sylvain had given her a quick goodbye kiss after they separated, though before he could leave to go to the cathedral, she took hold of the tie which he had on and neatened it out as an excuse to give him another.

* * *

* * *

Byleth had never expected to be brought to tears when it came to the time that she and Sylvain had to exchange vows in the ceremony. Sylvain had taken hold of her hands with a smile on his face, before reading out what he had prepared.

“I still remember when I first saw you, Byleth. It was when you were walking around the grounds of this very monastery, getting to know the students at the Officer’s Academy. I didn’t even know that you were going to be the professor of the Blue Lions at that point. What I did know, however… was that there was something incredible about you. You were a force of nature, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off you,” he began, tightening his grasp and laughing quietly. “When I heard that you had a crest though, and grew up completely unaware of it… I was mad. Really mad… My mind was saying to hate you, as the luxury of not knowing about having a crest was not something I could experience. But in my heart… I admired and longed for you, even when I was off flirting with any other female who entered my line of sight. You didn’t depend on your crest. You depended on yourself, your friends, and your allies.”

There was complete silence in the cathedral as Sylvain sighed, and shook his head. “I was a complete idiot back then. It took losing you for me to realise just how precious you were to me. I changed my ways in your absence, in the hope that if you would return, I could have a chance. When you reappeared, a little under one year ago… I vowed to prove myself worthy of you. Somehow, in the chaos of war… I managed to do it. I found you by my side, loving me… as me. Not for my crest, not for money… Just me.”

It was that line which had managed to overwhelm Byleth. She could hear the raw emotion in his voice showing just how much he appreciated her feelings for him, and had brought her to tears. For that matter, half of the audience were showing some sort of emotion, and that _included_ his father, much to the shock of the couple.

“Byleth… I know that I’ve said this many times before, but I love you. I love you more than anything, excluding the two little miracles who will be with us in three moons’ time. I promise that as your husband, I will support you through everything that life has to throw at us, no matter where we are, what we are doing, or how we are. What is it people say… In sickness and in health, that’s it. I’ll be there for you in sickness and in health, for the rest of our lives…”

Even as Byleth was asked to read out her own vows, she found herself trying to hold back tears as she thought over what he had said. It was… beautiful. That’s how she would describe it.

She began to pull herself together again when it came to the exchange of rings. They had opted for simple silver wedding bands, after having gone somewhat over the top with their engagement rings, seeming as Sylvain had spent a lot on the one for her, and she had given him one of her two family heirlooms.

Then… They were finally declared to be husband and wife. Seteth, who was officiating the wedding, had barely finished saying that they could kiss by the point that Byleth had grabbed hold of Sylvain’s shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss.

As they parted to the sounds of cheering, and their closest friends running over to congratulate them, Byleth wrapped her arms around his shoulders and laughed. “One ceremony down, one to go…” she whispered, resting her head against him. “By the way, your vows… I don’t know if you noticed, but I started to cry. They were… lovely.”

“Not as lovely as you, Byleth Gautier.”

* * *

* * *

“I came here as fast as I could, and somehow, I still managed to miss almost the entire wedding!”

“To be honest Claude, as we didn’t know where in the world from outside Fódlan you were coming from, we were half expecting you to not be able to make it at all, even though you were the one who invited himself back in Derdriu even before we were engaged,” Byleth smiled, squeezing at Sylvain’s hand. Her smile slowly faded afterwards as her gaze fell to the ground. “Though it is nice to see you here. It is… nice to know that not everyone from the Officer’s Academy that year aside from the Blue Lions are gone…”

“Teach… Don’t get yourself down with thoughts like that. I mean… There’s me, Hilda is still alive and kicking, Marianne managed to avoid the conflict… Ah. I see what you mean…” Claude muttered, before shaking his head. “The point still stands. It’s a big day for you, you should be happy! You just got married to the infamous ladies’ man Sylvain Gautier-“

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I haven’t-!” Sylvain started to shout, but all Claude did was talk over him with a smirk.

“-and you are going to become Archbishop this afternoon!”

Sylvain started grumbling under his breath, tightening his hold of Byleth’s hand. Byleth noticed this, and quietly laughed as she kissed his cheek. “Don’t let his words get to you, my lovely husband. He only really saw you in the academy when you would flirt a lot, so he probably hasn’t seen how different things are now.”

“Yeah, exactly as Teach says. It’s hard for me to imagine you as someone who would settle down, Sylvain, but obviously I’m basing that on all the way back then,” Claude stated, which did manage to get Sylvain to calm down slightly. He was right, he supposed. “Anyway… I heard through the grapevine that you are having twins?”

Byleth nodded. “Yes… A son and a daughter.”

“So, uh… Thought of any names?”

“Not ‘Claude’,” Sylvain was very quick to state. “And only somewhat. Their middle names will be the names of Byleth’s parents, but their first names… Still up for debate.”

“We still have three moons to think about that though. And I’m sorry, I can see that Seteth and Dimitri are wanting to talk to me about this afternoon, so I should go to them…” Byleth smiled, followed by thanking Claude for coming and making her way over to the two who were after her attention. That left Claude and Sylvain stood there, in a somewhat awkward silence.

Eventually, Claude broke it by sighing. “You’re a lucky guy, Sylvain. Teach is a kind, thoughtful person and you obviously make her happy. There’s nothing better than having someone like her on your side. Take care of her.”

* * *

* * *

Not long after she had officially taken on the title of Archbishop, as the early winter sunset was beginning to turn the skies to pale hues of pink and orange, Byleth had to excuse herself from the festivities and formalities which followed on from the ceremony. Fortunately, everyone in attendance understood – she had been on her feet for most of the day already, and she had started complaining about her body aching.

Sylvain had gone with Byleth as she went to their room, and once inside, she began to do her best to remove anything which wasn’t essential for her to wear. Her shoes were kicked off, and she tossed off the headpiece she had to wear as Archbishop. He quickly caught the delicate item, and placed it down on her desk.

“Goddess above, my feet _hurt_...” she muttered, sitting at the foot of the bed, and stretching her legs out. If her body would have allowed her, she would have leant forward to rub at her aching soles, but she couldn’t. “I don’t regret getting married and becoming Archbishop in the same day, but... I didn’t realise that I could ache this much.”

Silently, Sylvain sat beside her on the bed, and wrapped his arms around her – one behind her back, the other on the growing bump. She responded in turn by shifting slightly to lean against his shoulder and sighing quietly.

“Would you like me to prepare a hot bath, Byleth?”

“That... That would be nice, yes...” she smiled at him. “Such a caring husband, looking after his pregnant wife...”

He chuckled at her words as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “And how about, afterwards...” he muttered as he leaned into her ear, his breath warm against her skin as his voice turned soft. “We behave like the newlyweds we are? We’ve got all night, and no obligations tomorrow...”

“Mm, I like the sound of that...”

Sylvain pressed a kiss to her temple as he released his hold of her, then made his way towards the adjoining bathroom to start preparing the bath. He returned after a few moments, and offered her his hands to help her to her feet once more as he brought her into the bathroom with him. That was followed by a quick kiss to her lips as he reached behind her and assisted in removing the dress which she was wearing. She was still fully capable of doing that herself, but she decided to let him. He was insistent on taking care of her to the full extent that he could after her complaints about aches and pains, and... It was sweet to see just how much he cared for her wellbeing.

A few minutes later, Byleth gave off a small sigh of relief as she eased herself into the heated water. She could feel all of her discomfort fade away as the water rippled around her body and a faint floral smell reached her nose. Sylvain decided to sit beside the bath to keep her company, and he couldn’t help but laugh and smile at the look of sheer bliss on her face.

Eventually, Byleth reached her damp hand out, and took hold of the sleeve of his shirt. “There’s enough room for four in here, you know,” she whispered, giving him a sweet smile. “I see no harm in bathing with my husband, do you?”

“Hey, you’re the one who needs to wind down and relax, I won’t intrude-“

She shook her head amusedly, before narrowing her eyes at him. “Get in the damn bath with me, Sylvain. If not, I’ll pull you in – clothes and all.” Her face instantly calmed after that, but showed that she meant business by splashing him with some of the water. Both of them found themselves laughing after some of his hair got plastered to his face because of this action, and he attempted to get it off his eyes.

Byleth smiled as she watched Sylvain eventually get his hair out of his eyes, and began to strip off his soaking clothes. He then did as she asked and joined her in the water, slipping in near to where her legs and feet were resting. “Have I appeased my wife by joining her?” he asked with a grin.

“Hmm, not _quite._ Maybe a kiss will be enough though,” she smirked back, beckoning him over with a finger. He obliged her request and leaned in to press a soft kiss to her lips. She made a quiet, satisfied noise in response though, which spurred him on into giving her another, much more passionate kiss as one hand found purchase on the edge of the bathtub, and the other came to rest on her hip.

Neither of them cared for the water which spilled over the sides in the resulting kisses, until eventually, Byleth shivered upon realising that her body was no longer as submerged in the warmth as it had been.

“Let’s… Let’s continue this when we go to bed to ‘act like the newlyweds that we are’, as you put it,” she whispered against his lips as they parted for breath. “I’ll be completely satisfied if we add a bit more water to this bath though, to answer your earlier question…”

Once some extra water had been poured, Byleth shifted so that she had her back to Sylvain’s chest in order to lean against him. They remained in this position for the following twenty minutes, allowing the soothing heat of the water to help them relax, and nothing but sweet talk coming from their lips aside from the occasional kiss.

It reached a point where Byleth almost found herself falling asleep, and she was surprised that Sylvain was allowing her. He already had to share their wedding day with her officially taking on the role of Archbishop, she had thought that he wouldn’t want to lose any more moments which they could have spent together by falling asleep. She didn’t want him to miss anything which they could have had if the day was simply just that of their wedding either, on her account.

“I say, Sylvain…”

“Hmm?”

“That we should get out of the bath. I believe I have relaxed more than enough now, if I stay any longer then I may well just fall asleep until tomorrow morning. I don’t want to sleep, as we-“ she paused as she moved her head upwards to press a chaste kiss to his lips. “-still have something that we both want to do.”

“You sure? If you’re too tired, we can wait until tom-!”

“I am very sure – it’s been on my mind ever since you raised the idea.”

Sylvain quietly laughed at her response, before carefully getting out of the bath and assisting her in getting out afterwards. As the water drained from the tub, they both dried off and returned to their bedroom. The clothing on the floor in the bathroom could be dealt with tomorrow, they both thought as they did so.

Almost as soon as the bathroom door was closed, Byleth had her arms around Sylvain’s neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss. He responded in turn by guiding her over to their bed, and easing her down onto it without so much as breaking the kiss or applying any pressure to her abdomen in the process.

Gradually, Sylvain pulled away from the kiss as he remained leaning over her, his hands moving to rest on her stomach. He gave her a loving smile as he then moved his fingers upward to her breasts, which were tender and swollen as a result of the pregnancy. She shivered and gasped quietly at the touch, closing her eyes afterwards.

“Be gentle, please…” she whispered moments later, the heightened sensitivity in addition to the way he had started to delicately brush his thumbs over her nipples making her squirm beneath him. He acknowledged her request, and returned his hands to where they previously were and instead began to leave a trail of kisses across her jaw and throat.

Sylvain smiled to himself as he heard her moan quietly, the noise also having an effect on his body. The sight of her sprawled out beneath him – wedding ring on her finger, pregnant with his children, longing for his touch – was both incredible and arousing.

“I… I know that we have just started, but… but please, touch me…” she eventually whispered, a longing in her voice which was extremely difficult for her husband to resist. He obliged her, and moved one of his hands down towards her legs. Instead of touching her where she wanted him to though, he began to stroke at the skin of her inner thighs. She whined, and nudged at his side with her knee from the leg which he wasn’t paying attention to.

He chuckled at her reaction to the teasing, before giving her what she asked for. Already, she was wet, and he could feel it as he ran a finger between her legs. She cried out his name as he began to rub his thumb against her clit, and his fingers carefully pressed against her opening. She was both warm and welcoming to his finger as he carefully eased one into her. As a result, her hands started digging into the sheets below her.

Ever since they had discovered the pregnancy, Sylvain had noticed that she had become particularly sensitive to most sorts of intimate touches, at the same time as being much needier in bed than she had been before. He relished the way in which she would become completely undone as a result of simple touches similar to what he was currently doing, but he didn’t want her to be completely spent as she normally would be by this point today.

“How are you feeling, Byleth?”

“I’m… I want you. I-I need you to-!”

Sylvain leaned down and captured her lips in his as he fingered her, his free hand grabbing hold of one of hers and lacing their fingers together. Byleth moaned into his mouth, then whimpered in protest as he withdrew his finger from her.

“Patience,” he muttered down her ear, before adjusting the position which they were in so that the tip of his cock was pressed against her entrance. She whimpered at the feeling, before they both made noises which sounded like a mixture of moans and groans as he pushed into her. “That better?”

She tightened her grasp of his hand as she nodded. “Y-Yeah…” She then moved her legs to wrap around his hips, pulling their bodies flush together – or at least as close as they possibly could, on account of the baby bump. The only thing which Sylvain didn’t like about this position was that it was quite difficult to lean down and kiss her without applying to much pressure or contorting his back into a difficult position, so he had to opt to pressing delicate kisses across the knuckles of the hand he was holding by bringing it to his mouth.

The pace at first was slow, his thrusts into her gentle so that there wasn’t any risk of accidental harm. Eventually though, she spurred him into moving faster as a result of the gasps and moans she was making.

He swore under his breath as a result of how good she felt around him as she tightened her hold. That was followed by her crying out as she climaxed, and her legs losing their strength as she gasped for breath.

Sylvain was on the verge of coming loose himself at that point, everything about Byleth and her body just being so incredible and stunning in his eyes and his hands.

“F-Fuck, Byleth…” he muttered as he came, the pleasure which he was feeling very quickly being overcome by tiredness. He carefully pulled out of her, and moved so that he could fall down onto the bed beside her.

As his senses cleared up, the first thing he noticed was that Byleth had turned herself onto her side to look at him, and was reaching out to run her hand through his hair as she used her other hand to stifle a yawn. “That was nice,” she whispered as she leaned over, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “A wonderful ending to a busy day, and all of my aches and pains-” She yawned once more. “-feel like something of the past…”

He quietly laughed as he too turned to his side, and reached for her hands. “I can imagine… that this wasn’t quite the wedding night either of us were expecting, but… I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Nor would-!” Byleth flinched as she spoke, before she bit her lip and looked at her stomach. “I… I think that one of the twins just kicked…”

“Th-They did…?” Sylvain’s eyes widened as she moved both of their hands towards her stomach, which was followed by another small movement. He could feel his eyes watering as he smiled in reaction. “H-Hello, little ones…” He noticed that Byleth’s eyes were watching his every action as he spoke to her pregnant belly. “You two had better not cause your mother any trouble in there… She needs to rest tomorrow, okay? She’s had a very busy day, and I’ll be the one who has to look after her!”

“Sylvain!” She playfully hit at his chest, a look of fake surprise on her face.

He grinned at her, and pressed a kiss to her lips. “And I love you too, my lovely wife.”

The couple quietly laughed as Sylvain pulled her into an embrace before they slowly allowed sleep to overtake them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do want to have them spending time with their babies at a later point in this fic because I'm a sucker for the thought of Sylvain doting over his children, but I am having a terrible time at coming up with names! If anyone has any suggestions, do let me know!!!


	18. Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mid-Pegasus Moon had arrived, and Byleth's due date was approaching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been trying to write for this past week but things like work have been h e l l. 
> 
> Anyway! Who wants Sylveth babies?

As her due date was approaching, Sylvain had noticed that Byleth had been spending a lot more time at the graveyard than she usually would. He knew that she found comfort through talking to her father at the grave shared by her parents, but in a way, he knew that something else was on her mind.

He could recall something which she had told him, back when they moved into their previous room – that her mother had died giving birth to her. From what he had learned after that, her mother had been sickly and frail, never allowed to leave the grounds of Garreg Mach. He knew that Byleth was worried about sharing the same fate as Sitri, in spite of the numerous reassurances that the pregnancy was completely healthy, the babies had heartbeats, and her seeking out help whenever anything concerned her about the pregnancy.

All that he wanted to do was reassure his wife that everything would be okay, so he decided that next time that she would go to the graveyard… he would join her, so long as she didn’t mind his company.

“Ah, finally… I have found one of you! I have searched high and low for either you or the Professor, Sylvain!”

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he was approached by Flayn, who, for the first time since they met, was actually stood directly in front of him, rather than some distance away. “Oh… Hey, Flayn. Is something going on?”

The girl shook her head. “No, I have come with a gift from myself and Seteth for when your children are born!” She had a smile on her face as she very quickly pushed a neatly wrapped bundle into his arms. “We may have taken the liberty of seeing where your preparations were for your son and daughter, and made some things which we noticed you did not have…”

Sylvain remained in a stunned silence for a moment, then smiled. “Thanks, Flayn. We’ve been run ragged at times trying to get things sorted for when they are born, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we have forgotten some things…” He then looked around, and took a deep breath. “I should probably go and find Byleth then, I doubt she would want me to open this gift myself.”

“Yes, you go and do that! And please, do tell me and Seteth what you think of them over dinner tonight!”

Before he even had the chance to respond, Flayn was already leaving to carry out her daily business. He could understand that she would be busy – she and Seteth were sharing some of Byleth’s responsibilities whilst she was on maternity leave from her role as Archbishop.

He then looked down at the gift, and sighed quietly. It was nice to know that there were people looking out for his and Byleth’s little family, considering just how hectic their lives were going to be once the twins were born.

Now… he just needed to find Byleth, and of course, he knew exactly where she would be.

* * *

* * *

“I keep finding myself wondering how you would respond to having not one, but two grandchildren born on the same day, Father… And to having them somewhat named after you and mother, in their middle names…” Byleth whispered as she sat beside her parents’ grave on a wooden chair she had dragged along (with the help of a passing knight) from the former classrooms. “I wish you could be here to meet them, but… I’ll settle for thinking that you will be watching over them, wherever you are with mother.”

Once she had said what she wanted to say, she took a deep breath and looked towards the sky. It was grey and gloomy, with it being almost certain that it would rain within the next hour or so, possibly even snow. Typical Pegasus Moon weather. Actually, it was typical Faerghus weather too - perhaps fitting for the month she was due to give birth to Sylvain’s children in.

She then rested her hands on her stomach. She felt _huge,_ almost fit to burst even. It was less than two weeks until her due date, though Mercedes had warned her that it was likely that the babies would be born earlier than that point. It did worry her, but it was far from the biggest of her concerns – her two main fears were surviving the birth, and if she were to, being a parent when her only experiences with her own parents being that Jeralt began training her as a mercenary as a young age, mostly so that she could protect herself.

Her moment lost in her thoughts was eventually disturbed by a familiar warmth from behind her. She smiled as she felt Sylvain’s arms around her, and his chin resting on top of her head.

“Talking to your parents again?”

Byleth closed her eyes, then nodded. “Yes… I am. I find it easy to talk here, it’s quiet and not as busy as everywhere else…” She muttered, re-opening her eyes as she heard a quiet rustling noise coming from between her and his arms. “What’ve you got there?”

“Oh, yeah – Flayn gave this to me before. Gifts from her and Seteth for when the little ones are born… I didn’t want to open it without you though.”

After that, Byleth pulled herself onto her feet, and took hold of the gift as Sylvain wrapped an arm over her shoulder. “That is so kind of them… But I think that we should go indoors before opening it – it’s cold, and it feels as though things are just going to get colder…”

Sylvain nodded to Byleth’s request, then moved his arm so that he could take hold of her hand so that they could walk to their room. On their way there, she would occasionally stop, and tighten her hold of his hand momentarily – each time, she would curse under her breath about her body needing a break. Once inside, she groaned quietly as she sat down – her mood instantly lifted when she remembered the gift, however.

“Flayn asked for us to let her and Seteth know what we think of the gift later… I do wonder what it is though, it’s very… soft through the paper wrapping it,” Sylvain stated as he sat down beside her as she carefully removed the wrapping. “I think she also said that they made it themselves?”

“Oh… Look, Sylv… It’s two little blankets…” As she had said, the gift consisted of two blankets, both woollen and hand-knitted – one in a muted purple colour, the other a pale orange. An adoring smile formed on Byleth’s face as she picked up one of them, then held it close to her chest. She then paused. “We forgot to prepare things like blankets for the twins, didn’t we?”

As Sylvain took hold of the other, he sighed. “Maybe? We’ve been so all over the place sorting things out, I’m unsure what we have and haven’t sorted aside from the ess- ‘Leth, are you okay?” Whilst speaking, Sylvain had noticed Byleth clamp her eyes shut as her fingers dug into the blanket in her hands. It took him a moment, before all colour drained from his face. “C… Crap... Don’t be alarmed Byleth… B-But I think that we need to find Mercedes. Or a healer. A-Anyone, even…”

* * *

* * *

The news of the Archbishop being in labour had spread around Garreg Mach like wildfire. Across Fódlan, even. It reached a point that Sylvain had to part from his wife’s side for a short period of time to help Seteth with dealing with the logistical nightmare which was increasing the security in the monastery.

Fortunately, the spread of the news had come in use – former Blue Lions who lived close enough to Garreg Mach, specifically Ingrid (who had been with Dimitri in Galatea lands) and Ashe, had been able to make their way to the monastery to provide support. That had allowed Sylvain to return to Byleth’s side, to support her as best as he could when she wasn’t being tended to by the healers who had been called to assist with the birth.

It was at this point that Sylvain felt truly helpless, aside from whispering words of reassurance to her and allowing her to squeeze onto his hands. She was covered in sweat with streaks of tears down her face – though she had survived many near-fatal injuries including falling off a cliff over the years, giving birth was… not comparable to those times at all, and he could tell by her reactions. As much as he liked her being expressive, these sorts of expressions made his heart ache.

Nightfall had covered the grounds of the monastery by the time that the sound of a child crying filled the room, and it was a further hour before a second joined the first.

Even through her exhaustion, the adoration in Byleth’s eyes was clear as she looked at the two children wrapped up in the very blankets which Seteth and Flayn had gifted earlier that day. She had held both of them for a period of minutes, until she looked at Sylvain with the sweetest (and most tired) smile he had ever seen on her face. That meant that it was finally his opportunity to hold onto them…

Rose Sitri Gautier and Alexander Jeralt Gautier. Their daughter and son.

He fell in love with them instantly.


	19. A loving family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I... I still can’t believe that we are parents...”   
> “Neither can I... But even though I’ve barely slept because a certain one of them is clingy, this all feels... Right."

“I... I still can’t believe that we are parents...” Byleth whispered as she looked down at Alexander, who was sleeping in her arms. He was the second born of the twins, and was by far the quieter one of the two. What’s more, even for a few days old, he appeared to be the double of Sylvain because of his red hair and brown eyes. It seemed that the only thing he got from her was a small nose.

Rose, on the other hand, was vocal. She cried a lot, but always seemed to calm down in Sylvain’s arms. She too had the signature red hair of a Gautier, though she had more in common with her than her brother, with curious green eyes.

“Neither can I... But even though I’ve barely slept because a certain one of them is clingy,” Sylvain began, gesturing to Rose, who was currently sleeping in his arms. “This all feels... Right. Maybe it’s because for the first time in a long time, I've got family which isn’t torn apart by crests and obligations...” He then smiled, and looked between both of the babies.

They had been told not long after the pair had been born that one of them bore a crest, and that the other did not. Did either one of Byleth and Sylvain care? Not at all. If the twins were to ask about crests when they were older, then sure, they would tell them then that Rose possessed the crest of Gautier. But right now, whilst they were little? Their mouths were sealed. Not even Sylvain’s father – who was still somewhat insistent on knowing – would be told of the crest.

After a few more moments, Byleth made her way over to the edge of the bed, still holding their son in her arms, before taking a deep breath as she stood up. Sylvain watched her with concern – even though after the birth she was told that everything was well, she had been exhausted and weak, and as a result told to be on bedrest for a few days.

“Can… Can we take them to see my parents? I know that I should be resting, but… There’s only so much I can take of being in this room for days straight. I know that Mercedes and Seteth are just looking out for me, but I know what’s best for myself.”

Sylvain sighed, but nodded. “Sure, but if you feel tired or unsteady at any point, we come right back here.”

* * *

* * *

To Byleth, the sound of laugher was appreciated much more than the sound of crying. Even as she stood in the Cathedral, on her first day of duties since giving birth, she could see Sylvain sat in the distance with Flayn, doing his best to appease the twins. Rose could be heard laughing as Flayn kept ‘disappearing’ behind her hands, whilst Alexander made quiet noises in his father’s arms.

“Make the most of this, Byleth… They really do grow up too fast,” said a voice from her side, and she smiled when she saw Seteth emerge. “I must admit, Flayn and I have more time than most, but even then… I still remember when she too was the same age as your little ones, and could hold her in my arms.”

She turned to look at him, and nodded. “I can imagine – it feels like only yesterday that they were born, but already they are making all those little noises and are so much bigger, and not almost four months,” she whispered, before sighing quietly. “But at the same time… I wish for them to grow, just a bit mote. Enough for them to be able to sleep through the night… I miss being able to sleep comfortably, without having to listen out for crying or waiting for Sylvain to return to bed when it is his turn to check up on them… I’m just so tired, and now that I am resuming my duties as Archbishop, it’s just going to get harder for both myself and Sylvain.”

“You sound as though you and your husband require a day of rest. There is no shame in asking for myself and Flayn, or any of your other former students for assistance in looking after the twins for a few hours whilst the two of you take some time to relax. My wife and I would sometimes leave Flayn in the care of Rhea or my brothers when she was young to do just that.”

For a moment, she was caught by surprise at Seteth’s words before she gazed towards the floor and took a deep breath. “Maybe… I’ll take you up on that offer. I’ll try to talk to Sylvain about it tonight…”

Her gaze went back towards her little family and Flayn, which is when her eyes met with Sylvain’s. He grinned over at her, before he took hold of Alexander’s arm and moved it slightly to make it look as though he was waving. She laughed quietly, and waved back.

“Well then, Archbishop Byleth… There are duties which need carrying out before the end of the day, and I assume that you would prefer them to be done sooner rather than later to return to your children and husband…”

* * *

* * *

It had taken a few weeks to arrange a day where Byleth could take a break from her duties and could get reliable childcare for both Rose and Alexander, but finally, she and Sylvain had the chance to spend time together without any distractions for the first time in many moons. They decided not to leave the grounds of Garreg Mach, just in case any situations occurred, but still decided to make the most of their temporary freedoms.

“You hear that, Byleth? Silence… Complete silence…”

“Really? I can hear you…”

“Very funny, ‘Leth,” Sylvain chuckled as he threw his arm over Byleth’s shoulders as they walked past the former classrooms at Garreg Mach, before looking at the rooms. “To think, we met in that room, right over there… And you were my teacher, even though you were only a mere few moons older than me. It feels weird thinking of you as my professor now, all I can think now is that you are Byleth Gautier, my darling wife and mother of my children, and the one I love more than anything in the world…”

“I feel the same – the others I still feel as though they are my students, because they still address me as Professor, even Dimitri despite him being a king now. But you aren’t my student, you’re my husband… My family…” she whispered, before turning to face him with a smile. “I’m so happy that you’re my family. You, Rose, Alexander… It’s more than I ever could have asked for…”

The pair remained silent as Sylvain began to pull Byleth towards the former Blue Lions classroom. Once inside, he removed his arm from over her shoulders, and shut the door silently.

It was so strange being inside the classroom for both of them – it was seemingly untouched after many years of no use, aside from the occasional cobweb, or the slight yellow-ish colouration of the Blue Lions banners. Almost instinctively, however, Byleth approached her old desk at the front of the room, and ran her finger across the top of it. After figuring out that there was only a little bit of dust, she used her hand to brush it off. She then proceeded to sit on the desk, crossing one leg over the other, and leaning back on her arms slightly as she looked at her husband.

Sylvain gulped as his eyes widened.

“If I remember correctly… On days where I would teach, and sat on my desk just like this… You would end up being the last one to leave the classroom, long after everyone else,” Byleth mused, before quietly laughing as his face turned a vivid shade of red.

He was quick to make his way over to her, and place his hands at either side of her on the desk. “It- It’s not my fault you would do that wearing shorts and those lacy tights!” he exclaimed, before taking a deep breath and shutting his eyes. “But that doesn’t matter anymore – not now that we are together, anyway. Why fantasise about being with my professor when I’m married to her? When I’ve started a family with her?”

Now Byleth’s face matched his in terms of colour. Of anything, it wasn’t even that he spoke about fantasising which had flustered her though… It was his wording.

“Sylv…” she took a deep breath as she moved one of her hands to rest against his cheek, stubble from the beard he was growing as he didn’t have time to maintain it prickling at her skin. “You said _started_ a family… Not that we _have_ a family… Are you implying that- that you want to have more children…?”

Their foreheads pressed together, their heated breaths mingling with how close they were to one another. “Well… I didn’t intend to have such a deep meaning behind my words, but… I won’t say that the thought hasn’t crossed my mind since the twins were born,” Sylvain whispered, closing his eyes as he sighed quietly. “Neither of us had the biggest of families when we were growing up… And I won’t deny that the detached upbringing I had, and lack of love isn’t playing a part in those thoughts too.”

“A big, loving family… It sounds wonderful, especially with you,” Byleth eventually responded, leaning forward, and pressing a delicate kiss to his lips. “Though perhaps we should wait for Rose and Alexander to be a little bit older. Agreed?”

His eyes were wide at her words, and that was followed by him kissing her back with an intensity she hadn’t felt from him since before the pregnancy.

“Agreed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go!!


	20. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In five years, a lot has happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have posted this sooner, but I haven't been feeling too well over recent days!
> 
> I was also debating between something steamy, or something short but sweet, and decided with the latter as a nice little conclusion to the fic~

Fódlan had been at peace for five years. Finally, things were settling down.

Though the lands were still spoken about as Faerghus, Leicester, and Adrestia, the entirety of the country was referred to as a kingdom by a majority at this point. The people revered and loved King Dimitri and Queen Ingrid, who were often mingling with the people and protecting Fódlan’s lands alongside their knights, of which their friend Ashe was now a captain of.

Many people, especially children, had been displaced by the war. Thanks to the combined efforts of the king, the Church, and the former citizens, Duscur had been re-established as a country in its own rights, and many of the displaced people took up residence there alongside those who used to live there. Well known people from Duscur now included Dedue, the king’s retainer and closest confidant, and his wife, Mercedes, who were in the process of establishing a school there. There was the occasional tale of people trying to cause trouble at the restored border, but apparently those who would do so would end up being cut down – rumours spread that it was the Death Knight, but it was never established who the mysterious guard of Duscur was.

In addition to the school in Duscur, another had recently been established. Or rather, re-established.

The Officer’s Academy had been open for a year by this point, but with major changes from its previous incarnation. It was not something which money could get a student into, but rather skill, knowledge, and talent. There were still three classes, and they retained their former names of the Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer as a way of honouring the previous iteration of the academy. Two of the current professors there included the Duke and Duchess Fraldarius, Felix and Annette, though it was a temporary fixture until permanent staff could be recruited by Seteth, the new headmaster of the academy.

Other things of note which had happened over recent years was the border between Fódlan and Almyra being loosened, thanks to the close ties between the kings of both countries allowing for tensionless agreements being made. As a result, many people from Fódlan took the opportunity to venture to the world beyond – of these, Flayn was counted amongst them, after having finally obtained the blessing from her father to travel the world.

Then finally, there was the biggest change of all – the reformation of the Church of Seiros. Many changes, originally thought of as radical, had taken place. The biggest of which was the devaluation of crests within the teachings of the Church, as it had sent ripples through society, but all in all, was a widely welcomed change. It had impacted on decision making, as it allowed for those who were worthy, rather than those who had blood from people long dead, to have the chance to be listened to, in addition to those with crests not feeling as much pressure to take on higher positions.

The driving force of the changes had been from the Archbishop and her husband, Byleth and Sylvain.

Drawing from their own experiences of living with crests, and the pressures put upon them as a result, they had been able to make these changes efficiently but reassuringly for those who followed the Church. Dimitri had taken a leaf from their book, and tied these changes into any legislative decisions too.

In a way, it had also taken a weight off their shoulders as parents too. They didn’t have to worry about Rose being made to shoulder the weight of her crest, or Alexander learning of his uncle Miklan and pushing himself to avoid sharing his fate. They were only four years old, and didn’t deserve to face such pressures which had plagued Fódlan for over a millennium.

* * *

* * *

“Daddy, um… Please can I have some?”

“Hey, this is too hot for you to drink, Rose. Your mother got you some milk, you can drink that.”

“B-But I want some…”

“When you are older, okay? I’ll show you how to make it too.”

“… Okay…”

Byleth chuckled quietly as she heard the conversation between Sylvain and Rose as their little family sat around a small table on the terrace overlooking Garreg Mach.

Every week, they endeavoured to have some ‘family time’, and this is what they would usually do – eat some cakes and treats whilst Byleth and Sylvain told stories to the twins, with the older two having a drink of tea and the children getting a drink of their choice within reason.

After Rose had accepted that she wasn’t going to be able to have any of Sylvain’s tea, she pouted and reached out for her cup. Meanwhile, Alexander was quietly munching on a cookie as he sat on Sylvain’s lap. However, he put it down and looked at Byleth curiously, then reached his arms out.

Quietly, Byleth sighed and reached her arm out across the table, and took hold of her son’s hand. “Sorry Alex, you can’t sit on my lap at the moment…” She then smiled at him as she squeezed his hand, then looked at Sylvain. “Are you telling them, or am I?”

Sylvain adjusted his face slightly, a silent way of asking whether he could be the one to speak. Byleth then nodded at him, and shifted her seat across slightly so that she was closer to him. That’s when he used his free arm to gesture for Rose to put her drink down, and sit on his free leg.

“Right, you two…” he began, grinning as he gave the twins a squeeze, making them both laugh. “Your mother and I have something very important to tell you both, because it is going to mean that you are going to have to be very careful when with your mother, okay?”

“Okay, daddy!”

“Um, okay…”

Byleth chuckled as she saw the twins looking up at their father in awe and curiosity. “Well… You two are going to become a big brother and a big sister. Your mother has a little baby growing inside her, and you are going to be having a little brother or sister soon.”

It was clear that the twins were surprised, as they were quiet, looking between their parents in surprise. That was followed by a series of excited clapping, laughing, and cheering.

At that point, Byleth couldn’t hold herself back anymore, and moved her seat even closer to embrace her family. During this, Sylvain leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to her lips, and grinned.

“It’s hard to believe that we are finally in a position to have that big, loving family that we discussed all those years ago…”

“Agreed,” she whispered back, letting out a quiet sigh. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way, or with any other person… I love you, Sylvain.”

“I love you too, Byleth.”


End file.
